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CNN reported on Sept. 19 that Robinson, using an alias, made racist and sexually explicit comments on a pornographic website called Nude Africa. Robinson has denied the claims and threatened legal action.

Mark Robinson announces lawsuit against CNN over report on racist porn site comments

Going to get to the bottom of what's going on here. And uh we are glad to be here today to be able to do that. I said at the very beginning, what this amounts to is to quote Clarence Thomas. This is a high tech lynching on a candidate who has been targeted from day one by folks who disagree with me politically and wanna see me destroyed. And so we are glad to take these first steps to fight back against what we consider to be one of the greatest examples of political interference in this state's history and quite possibly this nation's history. And with that, I'll turn it over to my attorney Jesse Banal. Thank you, Lieutenant governor. A few weeks ago, my team set out on this investigation. We were determined to follow the facts. The investigation was guided by those facts. The team that uh in uh was involved in this investigation included a number of attorneys including including seasoned trial attorneys and former federal prosecutors. The investigation was led by a former FBI special agent and we had a number of other specialists that were highly involved in going down in following the facts, knocking on doors, picking up the telephone and also using the full range of technology resources available to us in order to fully investigate the lawsuit that we filed today is the first step. The first fruit of that investigation, we have worked tirelessly to get to the truth for the sake of Lieutenant Governor Robinson, his family and the voters of North Carolina. And then today in Wake County Superior Court, we filed a defamation lawsuit against the cable news network and Lewis money. That lawsuit lays out the effort to, as the Lieutenant governor said, use a high tech lynching in order to interfere with North Carolina's 2024 gubernatorial election. We expect to find that there are more bad actors that have been involved in this process to interfere with the election and there is more to come and let me say this, there have been those that have tried to interfere with our investigation by stonewalling and to them, I will say that we will use every tool at our disposal now that a lawsuit has been filed, including the subpoena power in order to continue pursuing the facts and you will not be able to hide behind stone stonewalling. We will get to the truth. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Is the lawsuit on behalf of Lieutenant Governor Robinson or the campaign or both as of right now, the plaintiff in the lawsuit is Lieutenant Governor Robinson. So are you seeking seize and assist orders. Are you seeking damages for a defamation lawsuit? You seek damages. We are seeking $50 million in damages for the reputational harm that has been done to Lieutenant Governor Robinson's good name in the course of the investigation. What do you, I know you've denied the story from the beginning, but I mean, factually, have you been able to prove that? Yeah, what our investigation has shown so far is that, uh, there were a number of inconsistencies that were used that went beyond journalistic standards in the way that CNN performed their reporting. First of all, let me say that we continue to, that Lieutenant Governor Robinson has always said these allegations are completely false. Our investigation has shown that he is quite frankly right about that, that, that what CNN did and what others that they have worked with have done in this case is, is tantamount to what we truly believe is this journalistic hit job in order to interfere with an election. So for instance, when you use information that is taken from, uh, uh, uh, data breaches and you don't properly verify that information, information that was available to anyone on the dark web. For instance, if you take that and then put it as the truth on your website, that can be one thing that is a reckless disregard for the truth and shows actual malice our lawsuit, which will be available to you. Walks through that entire process. And why we believe what was done with defamation. Yes, sir. Obviously this is how you track we the ex yeah, the primary. Uh well, you know, polls are one thing, but we're still campaigning and we're making 5 to 7 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 at the governor's mansion. And as for you all to provide any evidence between uh six men and Rock, you guys say, you say go live. Uh you CNN was able to have five drafts governor, the address that show these people of Africa office. Uh If I say yes. Mhm C Yeah, that's what the complaint is. The complaint is a rundown of our evidence. But let me say really clearly when they say for instance, biographical data, where they say other things that might be consistent with the way that he's known to talk and that he did talk at the time on Facebook, an open Facebook account that is simply nothing that is compelling that CNN has brought forward for information. There is nothing more than data breach information that could come from anyone at any time. The lawsuit walks through every single or not every single one. Much of the information that we have found so far in this process and there will be more to come. Let's remember that your average federal investigation into something like this would take months and months. If not years in three weeks, we have already put forward compelling evidence that CNN failed to use journalistic standards in the way they have interfered with this election. And once we have subpoena power, once we have discovery, there will be even more that will come forward. Reporting is said is not true. The lieutenant governor did not make any of these posts. Yes, we are alleging it as false and that's what our lawsuit says. When will the earliest for discovery? When can we expect discovery? That's something that's up to the court system. We are moving as fast as possible to get answers to this question. But of course, there is a litigation process. We, we have asked CNN for retraction. They have declined to do so. Uh We have asked to be able to examine the data that CNN used in their reporting. They have declined to give us access to that information they have declined to make, to show their work and how they arrive at these, at these conclusions. Uh And so, uh, we um uh in, in this process have and, and will continue to try to get to the bottom of it. But that's one of the importance of the discovery process is uh uh that we will now be able to, to get uh a number of uh uh pieces of information from CNN and from other third parties through the discovery process. So who's behind this hit job? Who's, who's behind this hi job. There are a number of other parties that, that we believe uh are that will be able to come forward uh within time to show the breadth of people who have decided to engage in this high tech lynching. But I'm not gonna do what CNN did by using uh guesses to, to put those names out there right now. What we are going to do is continue our investigation in a professional way. And once we have the solid information, then that will be part of our lawsuit. Are you finding any evidence to suggest so far that this is some kind of A I to the code on the site? Or are you simply proving to this lawsuit that they have inadequately proven the evidence to back up the, they haven't given us any information that would allow us to know any of that one way or another. Because again, we have asked for them to be able to show their work for us to be able to do an audit of the resources that they have used and the fact that these posts were taken down off of, you know, the, the relevant website. So uh so soon after the reporting and the fact that CNN hasn't uh come forward to allow that full audit of their information has made that difficult so far, which is again, why the discovery process is so important this report only started and I guess the other, but the recording actually said it posted them before that one. Um, and if you go and you look at that Twitter account, now it appears to be obviously it looks in the 14 control account, but it points to Josh Stein's website. Do you, do you have any comment? I think that these are all great issues that we will continue to look at and you're exactly right. There's a number of the technological issues of these cases and everything from, from Twitter accounts to IP addresses and everything that right now don't make sense. And that is why our investigation is continuing and that is why we think as more and more information comes out, it will become more and more clear that this is nothing but the high tech or you keep bringing up this term of election interference in the human. Can you elaborate a little bit on what that entails on your part? Absolutely. So defamation is the publication of false statements. The election interference here shows is one of the things that can show actual malice in a case when in a defamation case, when we have to show that something was done with an organization that is knew the information was false or made it with a reckless disregard for the truth. Election interference provides the motive there for them to do that, which is why this is very much an election interference case So you're saying that a national, a global news organization is conspiring with a third party outfit to throw an election which was already looking like this person was not going to win. I'm saying that a left wing media outlet is going to do everything they can to stop this man from being governor because they know that this man has an ability to connect with voters in a way that quite frankly scares them and they don't want him uh to be involved in, in politics at any level. And so that's, uh, I think that's what we've seen here. What are the allegations in the suit that get money? He, one of the uh, defendants in which you, yeah. Uh, the, the allegations are also that, that Lewis Money and uh his activities, um uh were also, were also defamatory and um, um, the, the, the lawsuit will lay out everything in in regards to Lewis Money. But you said that there is a list of people that you believe to be involved is that outlined in the complaint. There's a number of people involved. Uh, the, the, the, the investigation is ongoing. We don't uh, name every single person that we believe to be involved at this point because that would be irresponsible and we are, are not going to go down the same track as, uh, we believe CNN has done for instance and, and get ahead of ourselves, but we do believe in our investigation has, has led us to believe that this is the tip of the iceberg. This is not by any stretch of the imagination is the end. So logistically, in terms of the way that the CNN story was put out with screenshots and posts, like you think so, would all of that just have been manufactured? Essentially is what you're alleging. Those posts could have been made by anyone, I think and we believe it is very suspect that they were taken down so soon after the story ran without an ability to do a full investigation on this. And let's remember, this is something that the allegations here are of a supposed event, years and years and years ago. Uh One of the things that our FBI investigator brought up uh to us is how much more difficult this is than doing a regular FBI investigation. Because if somebody brought this to the FBI, they would say there's nothing we can do here. It's past the statute of limitations. And so they wouldn't even investigate it because when you have to go back, you know, over a dozen years in order to look at information, in order to prove somebody's innocence just based on spoilers allegations alone, it makes it very, very difficult, which is why I'm particularly proud of our team. And in just a few short weeks that we've had this, how far we've been able to go to show the falsity of this story. If your proof is so good. Why aren't other Republicans standing with you? You're by yourself. We stand with the voters of or the, the Lieutenant Governor Robinson stands with the voters of North Carolina. Our job is not to go convince uh politicians or bureaucrats. This case is for the courts. We're gonna go make our case in court. This case is for a jury. How much money is this all costing? And who's putting up the money for? Uh I mean, any, any lawsuit costs money. And that's one of the real harms here. This is something that's so disgusting is that rather than being out on the campaign trail full time of like he actually frankly, he is talking about the voters of North Carolina when you have such an effort at election interference. It's an attempt to distract, it's an attempt to try to use law fair in order to force people to use financial resources on fighting back against rumors and innuendos rather than getting out there and talking about the issues that are important to voters 26 days previous stories or powerpoint presentations outside the governor's office walking. Yeah. Is, is there any evidence you said it could be anyone? Do you have any evidence was the, well, we have, first of all, we have a complaint, a complaint that has been filed in court. Um And that is something that, you know, that is the way that we do the litigation process. Uh in this, in this country. And now we will have the opportunity to go forward and prove uh what we have put in the complaint and we are confident in our, in our ability to do that. You mentioned getting short of the story, obviously, CNN wouldn't have over that. That would be up to the website, whatever you know, servers host them. Have you been in contact with those sites to try and get a hold of those materials? Archives of those, like I said before, there have been a number of efforts to reach out to a number of people, not just picking up the telephone, but actually knocking on doors. And there's been some people that have been more forthcoming than others. And again, what I will say is they will not be able to hide behind obstruction anymore because as this lawsuit moves forward, we will have subpoena power, we will have the power of discovery. Lieutenant Governor Josh Stein the other day told reporters that discovery would be very interesting. Is there any message you wanted to send to? Have you done this? No. Has this investigation impacted the campaign's finances at all of the TV? Ads stopped running around the time that the CNN report came out. Is this diverting resources otherwise be getting your message out on TV? I can, I can answer that question. Uh Our campaign financing is still going well, but we've chosen to go in a different direction there we've chosen to hit the road and get out and actually meet the people. We find that it's, uh, it's much more leaves our campaign more financially stable and flush. And, uh, we find out, we find we are finding this far more effective, uh, than what we've been doing in the past in our campaign. We should have done this, uh, long ago actually. Well, I can tell you this. Uh, there was a time when, uh, one of your news outlets drew me as, uh, characterized me as a Klansman in a cartoon. And I stood on that porch and held a press conference. And when I did, there were very few people that stood behind me on that porch. Very few. It was my wife and a few others. You know, when times of trouble come in this poli this thing we call politics. It separates the strong folks from the weak, uh, the weak will turn and run and the strong will stand and fight. And that's what we're doing here today. We're standing and fighting regardless of who turned and ran away from us, regardless of who doesn't believe us, regardless of who does we know what the truth is and we're ready to stand and fight those who are not, we're not worried about them. Of course, we know that CNN can of course, refuse to show you the sources for the First Amendment reasons, right? Where does the first Amendment stop and defamation? Begin. Where are you making that argument? That's an excellent question. Defamatory speech is not free speech. You do not have the right to go around lying about people. You do not have the right to go maliciously attack people with falsehoods in order to affect an election. The source material we're talking about isn't necessarily only from, from uh individual sources, but even the technological data that they collected in this process to be able to allow us full access to that. To get to the truth. We are the ones using the first amendment in this case to go bring this case. Uh uh, in not only the, the court system to the voters to get to the truth, obstruction will not get in the way. Um, and, uh, uh, again, I it's very important to, to remember that there is a huge difference between freedom of speech and defamatory lives. Thank you all very much for your time. Mhm. Hm.

Mark Robinson suing CNN for defamation

Mark Robinson says he's suing CNN for defamation

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