Mark Robinson Sues CNN, Former Porn Shop Employee for Defamation

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.”

Robinson—represented by Jesse Binnall, a Virginia-based attorney who has represented Donald Trump, and Anthony Biller of 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 a 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.  

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.”

(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.)

But proving that won’t be easy. 

“The plaintiff is going to have to prove that it is false,” Martin said. “That is, it is not a defendant’s obligation to prove that the statement is true. It is a plaintiff’s obligation to prove that it is false. In and of itself, that is a big hurdle.”

Reached by phone, Money said the Robinson campaign never contacted him or asked him to retract his story before filing a lawsuit. But he also insisted that what he had told The Assembly was true. 

“Y’all’s article, from my point of view, was 100 percent accurate,” Money said. “I’m standing behind that story 100 percent.”

He also said he was excited about the attention the lawsuit would give his band. 

“I am loving every minute of it,” Money said. “I mean, it’s laughable. But I’m happy because at least Trailer Park Orchestra should get another 10,000 fucking page views now.”

Money does not appear to have fully considered how much money Robinson’s lawsuit might cost him, even if it’s dismissed.  

In North Carolina, defendants are usually responsible for their own attorneys’ fees regardless of the outcome. Unlike CNN, Money does not have First Amendment attorneys at his disposal. Hiring them could cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on how long the case drags on.

“Ordinarily, in North Carolina, everyone pays their own legal fees, whether they win or lose,” Martin said. “There are a handful of exceptions to that. One of those exceptions can be if you have been forced to defend an utterly frivolous lawsuit. A plaintiff who brings a libel suit knowing that the statements at issue are accurate has brought a frivolous lawsuit.” 

Martin stressed that she was not opining on whether Robinson’s case was frivolous.

Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia have laws penalizing so-called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or meritless lawsuits designed to curtail citizens’ free speech by forcing them to pay attorneys’ fees and court costs. North Carolina is not one of them. In 2011, an anti-SLAAP bill was introduced in the General Assembly, but died in committee despite “no known history of controversy,” according to a 2021 memo from Duke’s First Amendment Clinic.

Also unlike CNN, Money does not have liability insurance to pay a settlement or judgment, nor does he have the means to pay millions of dollars. “I am a starving artist,” Money said. 

He thinks Robinson is trying to gain publicity. “It’s desperation,” he said. “He’s trying to jump off the Titanic.”

There is one indication that Robinson—trailing badly in polls—might be hoping that his complaint generates headlines. 

In North Carolina, state law forbids plaintiffs from specifying the amount of damages they’re seeking in their complaint; instead, Rule 8 requires them to say whether or not they want more than $25,000, the threshold for whether the lawsuit goes to district or superior court. Robinson’s lawyers appear to have violated that rule when they asked for $50 million—an eye-popping amount noted in almost every news article about his lawsuit.  

Additional reporting by Joe Killian.

Jeffrey Billman reports on politics and the law for The Assembly. Email him at jeffrey@theassemblync.com.

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