RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and the law firm he hired provided an update Tuesday about their "investigation" into a CNN report about the lieutenant governor, saying they have filed a defamation complaint in court as a result.
It comes after CNN claimed Robinson had posted several sexually graphic and racist comments to a pornographic website.
Attorney Jesse Binnall, with the Binnall Law Group, said his team includes a number of attorneys and the investigation was led by a former FBI special agent. He said they knocked on doors, focused on "following the facts." Robinson and Binnall called the report a "high-tech lynching" intended to interfere in the gubernatorial election.
The report sparked pressure for Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor, to withdraw from the race but he refused to do so. The deadline for candidates to withdraw has now passed.
In a news briefing later Tuesday, Democrat North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Robinson should step down from his current position as lieutenant governor. In North Carolina, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately and can come from different political parties.
Robinson posted a video on X, just before the story aired in September, claiming it was "outrageous lies" coming from his 2024 opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. He continues to deny writing the posts. The denials did not stop several of his staff members from resigning.
Robinson's attorney says they are seeking $50M in damages for reputational harm from CNN as well as Louis Money, who WRAL News described as "a former Greensboro adult video store employee who was among half a dozen people who told The Assembly earlier this year that, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Robinson came into two Greensboro stores almost daily to watch explicit videos."
Robinson maintains his stance that the allegations are false, and Binnall said their investigation "has shown that he is quite frankly right about that."
"What our investigation has shown so far is that there were a number of inconsistencies that were used that went beyond journalistic standards in the way that CNN performed their reporting." Binnall said.
When reached for comment by the Associated Press, a CNN spokesperson said they had no comment on the lawsuit.
Robinson's decision to keep campaigning has caused questions about GOP outcomes in other key races in North Carolina, including former President Trump's efforts to beat Vice President Kamala Harris in the battleground state. Trump has won North Carolina twice.
"Polls are one thing, but we're still campaigning," Robinson said. "We're making five to seven stops a day and every place we go is filled to capacity, so we anticipate winning this election despite this attack. So any plans for the future that we have are the governor's mansion."
Binnall previously represented former President Donald Trump in lawsuits filed in several states after the 2020 presidential election. Those lawsuits claimed widespread fraud caused Trump to lose multiple states he believed he should have won. State officials in Nevada, where one of the lawsuits was filed, found no evidence of any large-scale election fraud that year.
Binnall said with subpoena power in Robinson's case, "there will be even more than will come forward." Binnall said CNN declined to retract the story when asked.
"I'm saying that a left-wing media outlet is going to do everything they can to stop this man from governor, because they know that this man has an ability to connect with voters in a way that quite frankly scares them," Binnall said. "And they don't want him to be involved in politics at any level."
Binnall said any lawsuit costs money, which harms Robinson's campaign approach. Robinson said they've chosen to "hit the road and get out and actually meet the people," which helps them with their campaign finances.
"We are finding it's far more effective than we've been doing in the past in our campaign," Robinson said. "We should've done this long ago."
When asked why other Republicans aren't standing behind them, Binnall said Robinson stands with the voters.
"It separates the strong folks from the weak, the weak will turn and run and the strong will stand and fight," Robinson said.