Lawsuit Drama: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson Sues CNN and Punk Rocker for $50 Million

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson filed a defamation lawsuit in Wake County Tuesday against CNN and Greensboro punk rock singer Louis Money, alleging that their claims about his pornography habits and online posts have “inflicted immeasurable harm to his family, his reputation, and his good name.”

Mark Robinson's lawsuit against CNN: A battle over defamation claims.

Robinson—represented by Jesse Binnall, a Virginia-based attorney who has represented Donald Trump, and Envisage Law, a conservative Raleigh firm that is also representing Robinson’s wife in the state Department of Health and Human Services’ review of her nonprofit—is seeking $50 million in damages.

On August 11, Money’s band, Trailer Park Orchestra, released a music video for the song “The Lt. Gov. Owes Me Money,” in which Money cheekily alleges that Robinson stiffed him for bootleg porn tape in 2004. Money told The Assembly in an article published on September 3 that in the 1990s and early 2000s, Robinson was a regular at the Greensboro porn shops where Money worked, watching videos there several nights a week after his shifts at a nearby Papa Johns. Five other men told The Assembly they saw Robinson in those stores, too.

Robinson’s campaign categorically denied Money’s claims and dismissed him as a “freak-show grifter” in response to The Assembly’s questions. A Robinson spokesman also called The Assembly’s reporters “degenerates.” Two weeks later, CNN published an article detailing decade-old statements attributed to Robinson on the pornography website Nude Africa. Among other things, Robinson purportedly called himself a “black Nazi,” said he wanted to own slaves and enjoyed transgender pornography, and posted graphic descriptions of sex with his sister-in-law.

CNN’s article painstakingly linked Robinson’s purported use of the handle “minisoldr” across multiple platforms, including Nude Africa, and demonstrated how posts on the site included distinctive language Robinson commonly uses and matched biographical details of his life. According to CNN, Robinson used his full name on Nude Africa, as well as an email address he used on other platforms.

Robinson again denied the allegations. But since then, most of his campaign team and several members of his office staff quit, and some prominent Republicans withdrew their support of his campaign. Most experts said Robinson’s campaign to be North Carolina’s first Black governor, once expected to be among the closest elections in the country, was slipping out of reach.

Robinson’s suit spends several pages touting his belief in “transparency,” how he burst “onto the political scene as a complete outsider,” and that he is “leading the effort to provide disaster relief to North Carolinians.” His lawyers allege Money and CNN were “trying to tear [Robinson] down and take away all that he has achieved by portraying him as something he is not” and were “responsible for a new low in digital lynching.”

The lawsuit accuses CNN of publishing the story “despite Lt. Gov. Robinson’s explicit denials” and blamed the network for not allowing Robinson to inspect its “source material.” It says CNN should have been more skeptical of the links it found between Robinson and those sites.

“As CNN is aware, people who create accounts on websites like NudeAfrica … prefer not to use their own names and identities for obvious reasons,” Robinson’s complaint said.

It appears to suggest that the posts, which originated from an IP address near Robinson’s Greensboro home, could have been made by someone who purchased Robinson’s hacked personal data, and faults the broadcaster for not seriously considering that possibility.

Because Nude Africa deleted its forum archives after CNN published its story, the lawsuit says, Robinson has no way to prove his innocence.

“As CNN is aware, people who create accounts on websites like NudeAfrica … prefer not to use their own names and identities for obvious reasons.”

The lawsuit also blames CNN for saying Robinson had an account on the dating site Adult Friend Finder. But that detail was not in CNN’s article. Politico reported that an email address linked to Robinson had opened accounts on Adult Friend Finder, the adultery site Ashley Madison, and the now-defunct Lords of Porno. (Robinson’s campaign denied that he opened accounts on those sites.)

The lawsuit contends that CNN is “a politically left-wing media outlet, whose reporting is often indistinguishable from Democrat party [sic] talking points” that knowingly participated in a “coordinated attack.”

“CNN knew that just weeks prior to its article, Lt. Gov. Robinson had been targeted by another ludicrous and dubiously sourced hit piece by The Assembly,” the complaint alleged. “CNN knew that the election was less than two months away.”

The Assembly is not included as a defendant in the suit, nor has Robinson or his campaign sought a correction or retraction for the story. (The Assembly also played no role in CNN’s reporting, and Money said CNN did not contact him before publishing its article.) The lawsuit does attempt to smear The Assembly, however, twice claiming that it has “links” to George Soros, the liberal billionaire and bogeyman in far-right conspiracy circles.

The Assembly has received no money from Soros or his Open Society Foundations. It does have two tenuous Soros connections: Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a nonprofit organization with which The Assembly has partnered to raise money for reporting on economic issues, accepted an Open Society grant in 2010, more than a decade before The Assembly existed. Open Society has also supported the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a multibillion-dollar nonprofit that funds journalism and the arts. The Knight Foundation awarded The Assembly a grant earlier this year as part of an effort to bolster “news outlets that have proven journalistic and business prowess.”

“CNN knew that just weeks prior to its article, Lt. Gov. Robinson had been targeted by another ludicrous and dubiously sourced hit piece by The Assembly.”

Robinson’s lawsuit (Robinson also complained that The Assembly’s article has garnered “tens of thousands” of readers; that number is currently about 180,000.)

Instead, Robinson targeted the 52-year-old Money, a source for The Assembly’s article, whom Robinson accused of concocting a “defamatory fantasy.”

However, the lawsuit admits that Robinson stopped by Money’s porn shop and brought pizza. It just denies that he watched or bought porn while he was there.

“Lt. Gov. Robinson, who has always been a gregarious, outgoing person, made friends with [Money], who also worked the night shift. He would occasionally bring over free pizza and socialize,” the complaint said.

It also said that when Robinson was photographed with Money at a Planet Fitness in November 2022, “there was no talk about bootleg videos or Lt. Gov. Robinson owing him any money. … Unknown to the lieutenant governor, however, Defendant Money would later use this encounter and their prior, passing acquaintance against him in a fantasy, concocted by Money to embarrass and tear him down.” When Money posted the photo to Facebook, he wrote that Robinson “still owes me money lol.”

In an email to The Assembly, the owner of the now-closed Gents Video & News, where Money worked, said Money has been telling this story “for many years.”

“I’ve known Louis for several decades at this point, and he worked directly for me for over two decades,” George Benton-Elliot wrote. “He’s a bit of a wild child, but one thing he is not is a liar. This is absolutely not ‘made up’ in the recent time that Mark has become a public figure.”

To prevail in defamation cases, public figures like Robinson have to prove “actual malice,” meaning they have to show not only that a publication made false and defamatory statements, but that it did so despite knowing the statements were false or while harboring serious doubts about their truthfulness.

“This lawsuit will not likely go very far, because CNN has the goods,” said Anthony Hatcher, chair of the journalism department at Elon University. “They have the receipts.”

If Money invented his story, as Robinson contends, his statements would likely constitute “actual malice,” because he would know they were false, said Amanda Martin, who runs the First Amendment Clinic at Duke University. (Martin has previously represented many of the state’s major media outlets, including The Assembly, in legal cases.)

“For example, if I was a reporter and I was told that you were doing a specific thing and I had a source to verify it, I would likely be able to do that without liability,” she said. “It may also be difficult for Robinson to prove actual malice with respect to CNN, which did its due diligence and actually reported on this.”

Hatcher noted that Robinson’s attorneys also might face a challenge in proving damages, particularly after his own behavior at political events, in which he has made some incendiary remarks about various groups, including transgender individuals and Black North Carolinians. “The burden is on him to show how this affected his business and family, and it may be hard for him to show that people didn’t know he had those views already,” he said.

Robinson’s lawsuit names CNN as a defendant in the case along with Money. The case has been assigned to Judge John M. Tyson, who also recently dismissed a different lawsuit against Robinson from the American Civil Liberties Union over comments Robinson made about transgender rights.

The case was filed in Wake County Superior Court. The complaint is likely to attract significant media attention, as it continues to develop.