North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN over an article the network published connecting the Republican gubernatorial nominee to numerous salacious race and sex-related comments posted on a porn site years ago, his campaign announced at a Tuesday morning news conference in Raleigh.
Robinson has categorically denied the contents of the report, which connects him to a username that identified as a “black Nazi” and defended slavery on a porn-site messaging board years ago, among other unsavory posts. The report prompted the Republican Governors Association to stop reserving ads on his behalf, as National Review first reported last month, and also resulted in an exodus of staffers from his campaign team as well as his official lieutenant governor’s office. Privately, Republicans say the race is now Democratic attorney general John Stein’s to lose.
CNN “chose to publish despite knowing or recklessly disregarding that Lt. Gov. Robinson’s data—including his name, date of birth, passwords, and the email address supposedly associated with the NudeAfrica account—were previously compromised by multiple data breaches Any person could have purchased and/or used Lt. Gov. Robinson’s data to create accounts all over the internet,” reads Robinson’s complaint, which was filed in Wake County Superior Court. “As CNN is aware, people who create accounts on websites like NudeAfrica, AdultFriendFinder, and Ashley Madison, prefer not to use their own names and identities for obvious reasons.”
The lawsuit adds a new wrinkle to the race for termed-out Democratic governor Roy Cooper’s seat between Robinson and Stein just three weeks out from Election Day. The race was trending Stein’s way before CNN published its report, but post-CNN article surveys show the Democrat consistently leading by double digits, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
The lawsuit calls the CNN article, which dropped the day of the candidate drop-out deadline, “defamatory” and “so well timed as to be uncanny.” Robinson’s lawyer also argues that the contents of the article have not been verified by other outlets. He is seeking $50 million in damages.
“Almost immediately after the CNN Article broke, the management of NudeAfrica shut down the forum section of its website, where these alleged posts were supposedly archived,” the lawsuit reads. “It then apparently deleted all messages from the user named minisoldr, thereby removing any evidence that could be investigated. As of this filing, the entire website has now been taken down, and the owner of NudeAfrica refuses to answer phone calls, knocks at his door, or letters sent to him or his company.”