Former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson faces lawsuit in NC after admitting porn habit
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Robinson admitted on a March podcast that he watched pornography and had an addiction.
- Louis Love Money sued Robinson, saying Robinson’s defamation suit was political theater.
- Robinson sued for defamation on Oct. 15, 2024 and dropped it Jan. 31, 2025.
Former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson faces a lawsuit after admitting on a podcast having a pornography habit.
In 2024, Robinson, ahead of his gubernatorial election, sued CNN and a former Greensboro porn shop clerk for defamation after CNN reported that Robinson made racist and raunchy posts on an online porn forum called “Nude Africa.”
But it’s not CNN suing Robinson.
It’s the porn shop clerk: Louis Love Money.
Just weeks before CNN reported on the old “Nude Africa” posts, Money spoke to The Assembly about the frequency with which Robinson visited porn shops in Greensboro during the 1990s and 2000s to preview pornography in a private booth.
The interview, reportedly backed up by five separate sources, came after Money and his band, Trailer Park Orchestra, released a song in March 2024 called, “The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money,” that alleged Robinson owed Money cash for a bootleg porn video that Robinson had purchased years earlier.
At the time of both reports, Robinson, a Republican from Greensboro, was already trailing the Democratic candidate and attorney general Josh Stein by double digits in the polls. But the news about Robinson’s porn habits and posts caused a rift among Republicans who once supported Robinson. Even then-candidate Donald Trump began backing away from Robinson’s campaign, though he never withdrew his endorsement.
By Oct. 15, 2024, just weeks before the election, Robinson filed a lawsuit, represented by out-of-state attorney Jessie Binnall, claiming defamation and saying they had evidence that the allegations were false, referring to election interference and deepfakes.
But Robinson would drop the lawsuit on Jan. 31, after losing the election to Stein by a margin of 55% to 40%.
“The lawsuit was never truly about money or about any supposed deep-state conspiracy, artificial intelligence, or pornographic video allegedly purchased in the 1990s or early 2000s,” Money’s lawsuit states. “Instead, the lawsuit appears to have been political theater, using the court system as part of an election strategy.”
Finding Money
Before 2018, no one had ever heard of Robinson or Money, and the lawsuit makes sure to point that out.
Robinson was a pizza delivery man and a factory worker until he made national headlines after a speech he gave supporting gun rights before the Greensboro City Council in March 2018. The city council members were considering canceling a gun show following the Parkland High School shooting in Florida and Robinson was vehemently against that decision.
His speech caught the attention of Republicans, including former Rep. Mark Walker, who posted it on social media. Trump helped lift Robinson to national prominence within the party, and by 2020, he was elected as North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor.
But he had secrets in his past.
In August 2024, Money’s band released a music video to go along with their song about Robinson. It was posted on their YouTube channel showing a man with pizza walking into a porn shop.
In September 2024, Money told The Assembly that Robinson visited Greensboro porn shops Gents Video News and I-40 Video News, where he would often preview two or more porn tapes per visit in private booths around five times per week.
The lawsuit states that Robinson claimed to have only visited the porn shop to see a friend after delivering pizza.
“Robinson’s explanation made little sense,” the lawsuit states. “At the time these events allegedly occurred, the timeline would seem to indicate Robinson was married, raising children, supporting family, and, by his own account, struggling financially. Under those circumstances, it strains credulity that Robinson routinely visited pornography stores late at night merely to socialize with a friend.”
As The Assembly reported on Money’s allegations, CNN was putting together pieces of its own investigation that tied Robinson to posts written between 2012 and 2018 on Nude Africa.
The election
When the news broke, Robinson was just weeks away from his election.
Money’s lawsuit says it was impossible that people were working years behind the scenes to set up Robinson, because they would have had to anticipate his political career as far back as the 1990s.
“One mystery that has always remained is why, assuming CNN is engaged in manipulating elections, it would choose the 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial race to do so,” the lawsuit states. “One could easily identify dozens of elections in the United States that carried substantially greater national significance and that were actually competitive.”
Robinson’s admission
Robinson largely disappeared after leaving office in January 2025.
Occasionally he would post on social media — often attacking certain groups of people, similar to what the public had become used to seeing from the Republican.
But in March, Robinson teased he would make an admission on a podcast that was launching from a Florida pastor.
Days later, Robinson said on that podcast, “I think, more than anything, you know, were allegations that I watched pornography and was involved with people that watched pornography, and that was absolutely true.”
He admitted that his addiction to pornography and women began in his youth.
And he said that he didn’t come clean in 2024 so that he wouldn’t take Trump’s campaign down with his own.
Suing Robinson
In the days that followed the podcast, two First Amendment lawyers told McClatchy that Robinson could face legal liability if he knew the information CNN and Money provided were accurate.
“If you bring a frivolous claim and continue to pursue the claim knowing it’s frivolous, you can be held civilly liable for either abuse of process, malicious prosecution or both,” said Mike Tadych, who also represents The News & Observer. “If he knew that what they said was true, and did it either to save his campaign or whatever else, then he abused the process.”
Money’s lawsuit says Robinson’s earlier suit “was part of an election strategy, as opposed to a legitimate lawsuit.” It says that Robinson “used the process against Money to advance his ulterior purpose, as is evidenced by the press conference and tweets diverting the attention from his failing election bid to flamboyant lawsuit.”
Money is being represented by Winston-Salem-based attorney Andrew Fitzgerald.
He is asking for the more than $25,000 he says he spent on litigation expenses and attorney fees, plus other awards the court deems “just and proper.”
