A former porn shop worker accused by North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of defamation has requested a court to dismiss the case against him, calling the politician’s charges “bizarre” and his demand for at least $50 million in damages a violation of civil court norms.
Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, filed a complaint in Wake County court on Tuesday against CNN and Greensboro’s Louis Love Money, claiming they published “disgusting lies” about him.
The lawsuit cited a CNN report from last month that Robinson made explicit racial and sexual postings on a pornographic website’s message board over a decade ago.
Weeks before CNN’s investigation, Money said in a music video and a media interview that Robinson visited a porn business Money worked at for numerous years beginning in the 1990s and purchased pornographic videos from him.
Money’s attorneys filed a dismissal request on Wednesday, claiming that Robinson’s case breached a procedural requirement requiring a person seeking punitive damages to specify an initial demand for monetary damages “in excess of $25,000.”
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According to the motion, the rule is designed to “prevent excess demands from leaking publicly in the media and tainting the judicial process.” Violating the rule, attorneys Andrew Fitzgerald and Peter Zellmer wrote, may “have been for the very purpose of creating media attention for Mr. Robinson’s campaign.”
Otherwise, the attorneys are seeking dismissal on the basis that the lawsuit’s accusations, even if true, do not establish a cause of action against Money. “The complaint contains many impertinent and bizarre allegations,” they wrote.
When asked for a reaction to the motion, Robinson’s team pointed to Tuesday’s news release announcing the lawsuit. In it, Robinson stated that charges made by “grifters like Louis Love Money are salacious tabloid trash.”
On Tuesday, Money stated that everything he had said was true. CNN declined to comment on the case when it was filed and had yet to react in court as of lunchtime Thursday.
Mark Robinson is competing against Democratic nominee Josh Stein in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
Following the CNN revelation, numerous Republican elected leaders and candidates, including presidential contender Donald Trump, distanced themselves from Robinson’s gubernatorial candidacy.
Following the CNN revelation, the majority of Robinson’s campaign and lieutenant governor’s office staff resigned, and the Republican Governors Association stopped supporting his candidacy.
According to the network report, the details of Robinson’s message board account were matched to other internet identities by comparing usernames, a known email address, and his complete name. CNN also stated that the account holder’s details matched Robinson’s age, marriage length, and other personal information.
The lawsuit claims that CNN published its report despite knowing, or carelessly disregarding, that Robinson’s personal information had already been stolen by data breaches.
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