North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson announced Tuesday that he is suing CNN over its bombshell report revealing lewd and racist comments he made on a porm website’s message board cover a decade ago.
CNN reported last month that Robinson made several sexually explicit and racially charged comments on a porn website’s message board, including calling himself a “black NAZI, expressing support for slavery, repeatedly using homophobic slurs and fondly recalled “peeping” on women.
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,” the lawsuit states, according to the Associated Press.
At a press conference Tuesday, Robinson denies that he wrote the messages and dismissed the allegations as “high-tech lynching.”
“We are holding CNN accountable, and we are going to get to the bottom of what’s going on here,” Robinson said adding that he has “been targeted from Day 1 by folks who disagree with me politically and want to see me destroyed.”
In their report CNN said they were able to identify Robinson by matching details of the account on the message board to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name.
Details discussed by the account holder also matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information.
Robinson’s attorney, Jesse Binnall said he has “always said these allegations are completely false. Our investigation has shown that he is, quite frankly, right about that.”
Binnall also called the reporting a ‘journalistic hit-job” against his client aimed at undermining his gubernatorial bid.
Polls at the time of the CNN report already showed Democratic opponent Josh Stein, the sitting attorney general, with a lead over Robinson.
Since the report was published several Republicans, including Donald Trump who has endorsed Robinson, have distance themselves from him and several top campaign officials have resigned.
