North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson on Tuesday called CNN reckless and defamatory over recent reports that he made racially and sexually explicit posts on message boards on pornographic websites. A lawsuit was filed.
The lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court, comes less than four weeks after reports that many Republican elected officials and candidates, including presidential candidate Donald Trump, distanced themselves from Robinson's gubernatorial race. I was woken up.
Robinson held a press conference in Raleigh with his Virginia-based attorney to announce the lawsuit but denied authoring the messages.
CNN reported that “Lieutenant Governor Robinson's data (including name, date of birth, password, and email address allegedly associated with his NudeAfrica account) had been compromised in multiple prior data breaches; “He recklessly ignored it and yet chose to publish it,” the complaint states. states with reference to the website.
Robinson, who would be the state's first black governor if elected, called the report a candidate who has been “targeted from day one by people who disagree with me politically and want to see me destroyed.” criticized it as a “high-tech lynching”.
CNN declined comment Tuesday, spokeswoman Emily Kuhn said in an email.
According to a CNN report that first aired on September 19, Robinson described himself on message boards more than a decade ago as a “black Nazi” and enjoyed transgender pornography, saying he was better off than Hitler. It is said that he left comments such as saying that he loved her. He accused then-President Barack Obama of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., calling him “worse than a maggot.”
By comparing usernames, known email addresses and full names, the details of the account on the bulletin board were matched to other online accounts held by Robinson, the network report said.
CNN reported that the account holder's account matched Robinson's age, marital status and other biographical information.
CNN said it also compared speech that frequently appeared on his public Twitter profile to speech that appeared in discussions by accounts on pornographic sites.
At the time of CNN's report, polls already showed Democratic rival Josh Stein, the incumbent attorney general, leading Robinson. Early voting began Thursday across the state, and more than 57,000 completed absentee ballots have been received so far.
Robinson also sued the singer of the Greensboro punk rock band in the same defamation suit, and in music videos and interviews with the media, Robinson alleged that in the 1990s and early 2000s he was involved in a pornographic industry where the singer once worked. He claimed to have frequented the store and purchased videos. .
Another defendant, Louis Love Money, released a video and spoke with other media outlets before CNN's report.
Robinson denies the charges in his lawsuit, which reads: Governor Robinson wasn't spending hours at a video store five nights a week. He did not rent or preview any videos, nor did he purchase any “pirated” or other videos with defendant's money. ”
In a phone interview Tuesday, Mr. Money maintained that his statements and the content of the music video were true, saying, “My story hasn't changed.”
The lawsuit seeks at least $50 million in damages and says the efforts against Robinson “appear to be a coordinated attack designed to derail the gubernatorial campaign.”
No evidence has been shown that the network or money conspired with outside groups to produce what Mr. Robinson claims to be false statements.
Mr. Robinson's lawyer, Jesse Vinall, said he expected more “bad actors” to be found, and that entities, which Mr. Robinson did not identify, were interfering with his office's intelligence-gathering efforts. said.
“Now that the lawsuit has been filed, we will continue to pursue the facts using all means available to us, including subpoena power,” said Vinal, whose clients include Trump and his campaign.
In North Carolina courts, a public official claiming defamation typically must prove that the defendant knew the statement was false or had reckless disregard for its truth.
Most of the top staff running Robinson's campaign and lieutenant governor's office resigned in the wake of CNN's report, and the Republican Governors Association, which had already spent millions of dollars in advertising to support Robinson, resigned from Robinson's campaign and the lieutenant governor's office. I stopped supporting the candidate.
And Democrats began running ads linking their opponents to Robinson, from Vice President Kamala Harris to candidates in states who voted against her.
Robinson's campaign is currently not airing any television commercials. “We have chosen to go in a different direction” and focus on in-person campaigning, he said.
Mr. Robinson already has a history of making inflammatory comments on topics such as abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, which Mr. Stein and his supporters have highlighted in their TV commercials and online opposition to Mr. Robinson.
“North Carolinians have known for a long time, even before CNN's report, that Mark Robinson is completely unfit to be governor,” Morgan Hopkins, Stein's spokeswoman, said in a statement Tuesday.
Hurricane Helen and its aftermath wiped CNN coverage from the front pages. Mr. Robinson spent several days working with sheriffs in central North Carolina to collect relief supplies and assess the state's initial response to relief efforts for Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is barred from seeking re-election due to term limits. criticized.
President Trump endorsed Robinson before the March gubernatorial primary, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids” for his speaking ability.
Robinson has frequently attended Trump's campaign stops in North Carolina, but has not attended such events since CNN's report.
