RALEIGH, N.C. (WGHP) — About a week after moving a defamation lawsuit from superior court to federal court, CNN has now filed to dismiss North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s defamation lawsuit entirely, calling it “political theatre.”
On Oct. 15 Robinson filed a lawsuit against CNN and North Carolina musician Louis Love Money after two separate news articles made claims about the outgoing lieutenant governor’s use of pornography outlets through the late 90s and early 2000s.
Published by The Assembly on Sept. 3, the first article featured an interview with Money, a former clerk of a Greensboro porn video shop. He told the digital magazine that, during his time working at the Greensboro store, he developed a friendship with Robinson, who he says frequented the shop after work. Money also shared the story behind the song “The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money,” released by Money’s band Trailer Park Orchestra, that claims that Robinson still owes the musician $25 for a bootleg porn tape. While Money is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, The Assembly is not.
Then, on Sept. 19, CNN published an exposé that connected Robinson to comments, which the suit described as “lewd, sex-obsessed, racist and outrageous,” that were posted on the porn website NudeAfrica from roughly 2008-2012. CNN links Robinson to the user “minisoldr” who referred to himself in forum posts as a “black NAZI!,” talked about peeping on college girls as a young teen at North Carolina A&T State University and reportedly made comments so explicit that CNN refrained from publishing them.
The NudeAfrica user disclosed biographical details that match Robinson, including name, age, location and year of marriage, and used several specific turns of phrase that Robinson has also used. The username “minisoldr” was the same Robinson had used for personal accounts on X, then Twitter, and YouTube at the time.
Robinson states in the lawsuit, filed Oct. 15, that he categorically did not visit these video shops to buy or rent pornography and that the NudeAfrica comments are not his. He said that he made friends with Money and would “occasionally bring over free pizza and socialize” during his time working at a nearby Papa John’s. He refuted the NudeAfrica comments saying that they could have been faked by people with a vested interest in derailing his gubernatorial aspirations.
Robinson’s legal team filed an amended complaint because the initial complaint violated North Carolina state law by demanding $50,000,000 in damages.
On Thursday, CNN filed a motion to dismiss the suit in the eastern district of North Carolina’s federal court. This motion comes six days after CNN filed a removal, moving the lawsuit from the Wake County Superior Court, alleging that Robinson’s inclusion of Greensboro musician and former porn clerk Louis Love Money was nothing more than a tactic meant to keep the lawsuit out of federal court, calling it “meritless” in the new filing.
Motion to dismiss
“Defamation lawsuits are not intended to be political theatre,” the motion begins. “Yet it appears this is precisely why Plaintiff Mark Robinson brings this suit against Cable News Network — a lawsuit he announced at a press conference in the final days of his campaign for Governor of North Carolina.”
CNN says that Robinson has not, and cannot, plausibly prove that CNN acted with “actual malice,” a legal requirement in defamation cases against public figures. In order to qualify as defamation, the defaming party must be aware that the alleged defamatory statements were false when they were made.
Additionally, CNN’s legal team pushes back on Robinson’s claims that the posts attributed to him could have been fabricated. CNN traced Robinson’s online identity through the use of a common shared username, “minisoldr,” and an email address obtained in a Disqus leak. Robinson claimed that these posts could have been manipulated or created by bad actors due to poor website security on the Nude Africa forum. CNN argues that this is not a sufficient argument to prove defamation, calling them “conclusory guesses” that are “untethered from actual facts.”
CNN’s legal team writes:
Based on this guesswork, Robinson proceeds to invent an implausible theory that CNN acted with actual malice and should have never published this highly newsworthy Article because maybe it is possible that someone (who he does not name) could have triangulated various bits of digital information (all of which predates Robinson’s time as a political figure in North Carolina by almost 10 years), fabricated the minisoldr posts, and then somehow manipulated the time stamps on the fake posts so they looked like they were made between 2008 and 2012. And he does so despite the fact that he alleges not a single shred of plausible evidence supporting that theory. Robinson’s hypothesis is implausible, to say the least. Robinson has not adequately alleged that CNN acted with actual malice. Indeed, by “showing their work” the CNN reporters demonstrate their subjective belief in the truth of their reporting, which Robinson is unable to contravene. Respectfully, this Court should dismiss Robinson’s Amended Complaint with prejudice.
CNN breaks down how they verified Robinson’s identity, from identifying the shared username and email address to unique turns of phrases to his specific favorite “Twilight Zone” episode.
“Based on all of the information CNN had gathered during its investigation, it had no reason to seriously doubt that Robinson was the author of the minisoldr Nude Africa posts. To allege otherwise is wishful pleading,” CNN’s legal team says.
Because they had “no reason to seriously doubt” the identity of minisoldr, CNN argues that Robinson cannot prove actual malice. The legal team goes on to outline a detailed rebuttal of Robinson’s suggestion that the posts could have been manufactured by a bad actor.
CNN’s legal team writes:
Under this theory, in the last four years since Robinson has burst on to the political scene, someone must have created an account on Nude Africa with the username minisoldr, added biographical information that matches Robinson, and listed Robinson’s email address involved in the Disqus (or other) data breach. This bad actor then must have dug through Robinson’s social media accounts to find phrases unique to Robinson and scoured the internet for posts on other platforms where Robinson revealed his interests and other facts about himself.
Then, armed with all this information from across the internet, the Mark Robinson impersonator created posts on Nude Africa containing information such as Robinson’s favorite “Twilight Zone”
episode and phrases like “dunder head,” and manufactured stories that align with Robinson’s biographical details, like peeping at a Historically Black College and University, where Robinson’s mother worked. Finally, the false Robinson poster somehow backdated every single post examined by CNN to a date between 2008 and 2012. This theory is not only implausible, it is ridiculous.
CNN concludes: “For the foregoing reasons, Defendant CNN respectfully requests that the Court grant its motion to dismiss and dismiss the Amended Complaint with prejudice.”
