RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A former porn shop employee who was accused by North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of defamation has asked a court to throw out the lawsuit against him, calling the politician’s allegations “bizarre” and his demand for at the very least $50 million in damages a violation of civil court rules.
Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, filed a lawsuit in Wake County court Tuesday against CNN and Louis Love Money, of Greensboro, saying they published “disgusting lies” about him.
The lawsuit identified a CNN report last month that Robinson made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board greater than a decade ago. Weeks before CNN’s report, Money alleged in a music video and in a media interview that for several years starting within the Nineties, Robinson frequented a porn shop Money was working at, and that Robinson purchased porn videos from him.
Attorneys for Money, in filing a dismissal motion Wednesday, said that Robinson’s lawsuit violated a procedural rule that requires that an individual searching for punitive damages state initially a requirement for monetary damages “in excess of $25,000.”
The motion said the rule is designed to “prevent excess demands from leaking publicly within 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 making media attention for Mr. Robinson’s campaign.”
Otherwise, the attorneys are also searching for a dismissal on the grounds that the allegations within the lawsuit, even in the event that they were true, fail to determine a explanation for motion against Money.
“The grievance incorporates many impertinent and bizarre allegations,” they wrote.
Asked for a response to the motion, Robinson’s campaign referred to Tuesday’s news release announcing the lawsuit. In it, Robinson said claims from “grifters like Louis Love Money are salacious tabloid trash.”
Money on Tuesday said he stood by what he had said as truthful. CNN declined to comment on the lawsuit when it was filed and had not responded to it in court as of midday Thursday.
Robinson is running against Democratic nominee Josh Stein within the campaign to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
The CNN report led many fellow GOP elected officials and candidates, including presidential nominee Donald Trump, to distance themselves from Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign. A lot of the top staff running Robinson’s campaign and his lieutenant governor’s office quit following the CNN report, and the Republican Governors Association stopped supporting Robinson’s bid.
The network report said it matched details of the account on the message board to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name. CNN also reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information.
The lawsuit alleges that CNN published its report despite knowing, or recklessly disregarding, that Robinson’s personal data was previously compromised by data breaches.