Carolina Journal
Staff Report
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is urging a federal judge to return his defamation lawsuit against CNN and a former porn store clerk to state court. Robinson’s lawyers filed a motion Monday to remand the case to the state court system.
CNN moved the case from state to federal court in November. The cable network followed up with a motion asking US District Judge Louise Wood Flanagan to dismiss the case.
Louis Money, the former porn clerk who recorded a music video criticizing Robinson, also has filed paperwork to dismiss Robinson’s complaint.
“Defendant CNN’s notice of removal fails for both procedural and substantive reasons,” Robinson’s lawyers wrote in a court filing supporting his motion. “Procedurally, CNN failed to comply with the strict requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 1446 and well-settled Fourth Circuit case law by not representing unambiguous consent from Defendant Money for removal.”
“Substantively, in its attempt to claim that Lt. Gov. Robinson has no possible state law claim against Defendant Money, CNN ignores the applicable standard of review and takes the untenable position that a deliberate fabrication by Money is not enough to show actual malice,” the court filing continued. “While it is common for a news organization like CNN to avoid liability for the false statements of its sources under the actual malice standard, the source himself who fabricates something within his knowledge can seek no such refuge.”
“Defendant Money did not repeat something he heard. He made it up himself,” Robinson’s lawyers wrote.
CNN has argued that Robinson should not have linked the network and Money in the same legal action. The network claimed “fraudulent joinder,” meaning that Robinson tied the two defendants together to keep the case out of federal court.
Robinson’s lawyers rebutted that charge. “Put simply, there is no fraudulent joinder, there is no complete diversity, and this Court must remand the case back to state court.”
Lawyers for Robinson and Money traded accusations in court filings on Dec. 5.
Robinson originally sought $50 million in damages against CNN and Money. He later amended his suit to comply with North Carolina court rules that limit references to damage claims.
“Defendant Money moved to dismiss … because Mr. Robinson’s complaint contained a specific monetary remedy,” Robinson’s lawyers wrote. “Within days of Money raising the objection, Mr. Robinson filed an amended complaint removing the request for specific monetary damages. Mr. Money also complains that Mr. Robinson has made his defamation lawsuit — concerning national news headlines and Money’s defamatory viral video in the heat of a gubernatorial election in a contentious swing state regarding racially and sexually charged accusations —a ‘media spectacle.’”
“This case is about three viral hit pieces against Mr. Robinson,” the court filing continued. “On August 11, 2024, Defendant Money released a music video titled ‘The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money’ (the ‘Music Video’). The Music Video depicts a man in a suit with a rubber mask of a black man, intended to depict Mr. Robinson, entering a pornography store to buy pornographic videos.”
“Defendant Money addresses the song to ‘Mark’ and ‘Mr. Robinson’ throughout the Music Video, identifying the man in the suit as the ‘first black man’ to hold the title of lieutenant governor. The Music Video falsely accuses Mr. Robinson of owing money for a ‘bootleg’ porn video that Defendant Money supposedly produced for him,” Robinson’s lawyers wrote.
“Defendant Money went on an interview with The Assembly, an online publication, and doubled down on his claims in the Music Video. The Assembly published the interview (the ‘Assembly Article’) where Defendant Money claims Mr. Robinson frequented the pornography store he worked at and would spend thousands of dollars on illegal pornographic bootlegs,” the court filing continued. “Defendant Money’s interview and the subsequent publication of the Assembly Article caused the Music Video to go viral.”
“A few weeks later, CNN published an article titled ‘I’m a black NAZI!: NC GOP nominee for governor made dozens of disturbing comments on porn forum’ (the ‘CNN Article’). CNN falsely attributed statements made on a pornographic website under the username ‘minisoldr’ to Mr. Robinson. These falsely attributed statements include several lewd, sex-obsessed, racist, and outrageous statements, including the comment from the article headline, ‘I’m a black NAZI!’” Robinson’s lawyers wrote.
“Between the Music Video, Assembly Article, and CNN Article, thousands if not millions of people have been exposed to the Defendants false claims against Mr. Robinson. The Defendants meant to make their stories about Mr. Robinson as famous and popular as they could to harm his election prospects,” the court filing argued.
“It is no shock why the media would be interested in Mr. Robinson’s lawsuit,” the lieutenant governor’s lawyers wrote. “Mr. Robinson was the Republican nominee in the swing-state of North Carolina; and CNN, one of the most well-known media outlets, had accused him in a national news article of calling himself a ‘black Nazi’ on a pornographic website. Also, Defendant Money had gone on The Assembly for an interview to boost viewership of his video accusing Mr. Robinson of spending hours at his pornography store and buying bootleg copies of grotesque pornographic videos. Defendants intentionally put these issues in the public eye well before this case even began.”
Robinson argues that the initial complaint seeking $50 million does not warrant Money’s request to have the case thrown out.
“Defendant Money has not been injured or prejudiced in any meaningful way from Mr. Robinson’s Rule 8(a)(2) violation,” Robinson’s lawyers wrote. “Here, publicity existed before the filings — even before the issue of $50,000,000. Defendant’s own publicization has guaranteed this case’s inevitable public audience.”
“Indeed, Defendant CNN is the news, and Defendant Money made a viral video. This case is not legal malpractice; it is defamation concerning statements made by and through outlets designed to garner as much public attention as possible,” the court filing continued.
Money’s lawyers filed a reply brief on the same day. “The opposition to Mr. Money’s motion is far more telling by seeing what it lacks as opposed to what it includes. The brief lacks: (1) An apology to the Court and the defendants for violating Rule 8. (2) An explanation for why the Rule was broken by a man who was purporting to be qualified to be the top governmental official in our state, and is currently the Lieutenant Governor.”
“The question of whether the violation was intentional is answered by the lack of explanation – it was Robinson’s plan all along to violate a well-known and well-established pleading rule through his very experienced attorneys,” Money’s lawyers wrote.
“Something has to be done. Mr. Robinson’s behavior is not appropriate. He violated a rule, made a spectacle of it, only fixed it when called out, then announced the fix was not sincere through his campaign. He has offered no other solution,” Money’s lawyer wrote.
Money wants the case dismissed or to get “a mere 1% of what Robinson says his case is worth – $500,000, less than the prejudgment interest would be on a $50,000,000 award,” his lawyers wrote.
CNN filed a motion on Nov. 21 to dismiss Robinson’s suit.
Robinson lost the Nov. 5 election to Democrat Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general.
“Defamation lawsuits are not intended to be political theatre,” CNN’s lawyers wrote in a court filing. “Yet it appears this is precisely why Plaintiff Mark Robinson (‘Robinson’) brings this suit against Cable News Network (‘CNN’) — a lawsuit he announced at a press conference in the final days of his campaign for Governor of North Carolina.”
“In the midst of that campaign, after conducting a thorough investigation, CNN published an article, ‘I’m a black NAZI!’: NC GOP nominee for governor made dozens of disturbing comments on porn forum’ (the ‘Article’), reporting that Robinson made lewd and racist posts under the username ‘minisoldr’ on the pornography website Nude Africa,” the court filing continued.
“CNN’s Article reports that these posts show that Robinson, at least at some point, privately held views that starkly contrast with those he publicly proclaims. The Article also includes a section in which the CNN journalists who wrote the Article ‘show their work’ as to how they made the connection between Robinson and minisoldr,” CNN’s lawyers wrote.
“Robinson alleges that the Article is false and defamatory and during his press conference announced ‘[the Article] is a journalistic hit job in order to interfere with an election.’ While this may make for campaign drama, it does not make for a good defamation claim,” according to the court filing.
“This Court should dismiss Robinson’s Amended Complaint against CNN because he has failed to plausibly allege a claim for defamation,” the network’s lawyers wrote. “In particular, Robinson did not and cannot plausibly allege facts that show that CNN published the Article with actual malice, i.e., with the subjective awareness of probable falsity.”
“In fact, the Amended Complaint does not include a single allegation demonstrating that CNN doubted the veracity of its reporting. Instead, it includes pages of invective broadly claiming that CNN acts as a monolith promoting a political agenda inconsistent with Robinson’s belief. Even if that were true — and it is not — political disagreement is not evidence of actual malice,” the court filing added.
“The only other allegations involve conclusory guesses, which are untethered from actual facts, that CNN acted with knowing falsity when it published that Robinson was minisoldr because he is sure that someone, somewhere, fabricated the minisoldr posts,” CNN’s lawyers wrote “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.”
The network filed its motion in US District Judge Louise Wood Flanagan’s court one week after filing paperwork to remove the case from state court.
In moving the case out of state court, CNN emphasized differences between the news network and Money.
“CNN is not affiliated with Money in any way,” the network’s lawyers wrote. “There is no allegation that anyone at CNN has even spoken to Money at any time ever. And the allegedly defamatory statements Robinson claims Money made are different in content than those he claims CNN made. In short, Robinson’s claims against Money have nothing to do with Robinson’s claims against CNN.”
CNN lawyers argued to the federal court on Nov. 14 that Robinson linked CNN and Money to justify filing suit in state court.
“Money is named in this lawsuit for one purpose and one purpose only – to defeat diversity jurisdiction and preclude removal,” the network’s lawyers wrote. “Robinson’s gambit, however, fails because Money is fraudulently joined in this action. Not only is there no connection between Money and CNN, but also there is no possibility that Robinson can succeed on his claims against Money. Jurisdiction is, therefore, proper in this Court.”
In support of moving the case to federal court, CNN also attacked Robinson’s claims against Money.
“Here, there is no possibility that Robinson can prevail in his claim against Money because (1) Robinson cannot plausibly plead actual malice and (2) Robinson cannot establish that Money’s statements are defamatory,” CNN’s court filing argued. “Accordingly, because Robinson cannot sustain his action against Money in state court, the [federal] Court can disregard Money’s citizenship and exercise diversity jurisdiction over this action.”
Robinson announced his suit against CNN and Money on Oct. 15, during the closing weeks of the election campaign.
“Today, we are taking the first step to do exactly what I said I was going to do after these scurrilous attacks were launched against myself and my family. We are holding CNN accountable,” said Robinson. “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 want to see me destroyed.”
The original version of the lawsuit sought $50 million in damages. Robinson amended the complaint to seek damages in excess of $25,000 after Money filed a court document emphasizing that North Carolina court rules ban plaintiffs from specifying details of the damages they seek.
“The Complaint contains many impertinent and bizarre allegations, meandering into two discussions of George Soros, conspiracies about media bias, and applauding Mark Robinson for lifting himself out of bankruptcy,” Money’s lawyers wrote. “The Complaint also sues CNN, and of course the lawsuit has been highlighted by nearly every if not every local news network in North Carolina and has been discussed in the national media.”
The filing accused Robinson’s lawyers of violating court rules by announcing that the lieutenant governor sought $50 million in damages:
“[I]t has to be considered that the violation of Rule 8(a)(2) may have been for the very purpose of creating media attention for Mr. Robinson’s campaign by creating a rambling narrative regarding CNN, Mr. Robinson, and a man who did an obscure video poking fun of Mr. Robinson for frequenting a pornography store (which the Complaint seems to at least partially agree with) … and for owing him $25. Somehow, according to Mr. Robinson, that caused him $50,000,000 of damages.”
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