Mark Robinson sues CNN and ex-porn store clerk for alleged defamation

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson sued CNN and a former clerk at a porn store in Greensboro on Tuesday, alleging that they defamed the Republican candidate for governor in news reports about him.

A CNN investigation published last month found that an account tied to Robinson had made a series of explicit racist and sexist comments on a pornography website. Robinson has denied that he made the comments, calling it “salacious tabloid trash.”

And in a separate report from the North Carolina online magazine The Assembly, a former employee at a Greensboro porn store, Louis Money, said Robinson frequented the establishment in the ’90s and early 2000s. His local band also produced a music video about Robinson allegedly owing him money from that time.

During a press conference held in front of the lieutenant governor’s residence, Robinson and his lawyer, Jesse Binnall, said the stories were tantamount to “election interference,” and represented a “high-tech lynching”—borrowing a term used by then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearing when faced with allegations of sexual harassment.

“This is a high-tech lynching on a candidate who has been targeted from Day One, by folks who disagree with me politically and want to see me destroyed,” Robinson said.

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