CNN Officially Hit With Major Lawsuit

Mark Robinson, the embattled North Carolina gubernatorial candidate, has officially filed suit against CNN alleging the network unfairly tarnished his reputation in a bombshell report claiming he frequented online pornography forums.

The AP reported on the lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court, which comes less than four weeks after former President Donald Trump and other major Republican figures have worked to put distance between themselves and the sitting lieutenant governor. Robinson has denied the allegations and in his suit alleges CNN violated his privacy by reporting on personal information about him that was leaked online. The network “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,” the suit states. Robinson, who would become the southern state’s first Black governor if elected, equated CNN’s reporting to a “high-tech lynching” against a candidate “who has been targeted from Day 1 by folks who disagree with me politically and want to see me destroyed.”

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Through a spokesperson, the network declined to comment though left readers with plenty to chew on after its September 19th report describing an alter-ego Robinson lived online. Posts compiled by CNN that the network claims were made by Robinson also include an excerpt where he allegedly excoriated civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. as “worse than a maggot.” The network claimed in its report to have matched Robinson’s longtime email address with the online accounts behind the posts as well as other biographical information including his date of birth, age, and length of marriage, the AP added. CNN also said certain figures of speech used by Robinson on the campaign trail were evident in the posts.

Part of Robinson’s suit also dispels a previous allegation by a local punk rock band whose singer claimed to have once worked at a pornography video shop frequented by Robinson. “Lt. Gov. Robinson was not spending hours at the video store, five nights a week. He was not renting or previewing videos, and he did not purchase ‘bootleg’ or other videos from Defendant Money,” the suit states. Robinson is seeking $50 million in damages as compensation for what “appears to be a coordinated attack aimed at derailing his campaign for governor.” Jesse Binnall, the lieutenant governor’s attorney, said he expects to subpoena witnesses in the coming weeks who will vindicate his client. “We will use every tool at our disposal now that a lawsuit has been filed, including the subpoena power, in order to continue pursuing the facts,” he told the AP.

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