Republican candidate Mark Robinson slaps CNN with $50 million defamation lawsuit

Republican North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson announced Tuesday that he filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against the Cable News Network over accusations the outlet made against him.

The CNN report claimed to have identified a screen name on a pornography community website that the network said belonged to Robinson. The screen name made various racist and very lewd comments on the message board.

'We anticipate winning this election despite this attack.'

Robinson denied that he was tied to the screen name, accused CNN of participating in "a coordinated attack aimed at derailing his campaign for governor," and sought up to $50 million in damages.

The Republican has called the report a “high-tech lynching” and claimed CNN was motivated by political animus against his policies.

“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,” said Robinson's attorney Jesse Binnall.

If elected, Robinson would become the first black governor of North Carolina, but that possibility got even more remote after polling showed that he was trailing behind the Democratic candidate by an astounding 16 percentage points.

"We anticipate winning this election despite this attack," said Robinson at a press conference with his attorney.

The CNN report said the lewd account had life details that matched Robinson's, as well as unique figures of speech. It also said he used the same screen name in other accounts linked to Robinson.

Robinson's lawsuit accused CNN of publishing a report “based on data from a dubious website, supposed corroboration from unverified — indeed, unverifiable — data, apparently sourced from hacked, data breach files, obtained from the dark web.”

Former President Donald Trump has distanced himself from Robinson after the CNN report. Other Republicans have also sought to cut public ties to his campaign.

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