Former NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson drops lawsuit against CNN, says he won’t run for office again

RALEIGH, NC – Former North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson says he is dropping his defamation lawsuit against CNN.

Robinson filed the lawsuit in November, following a CNN report that said he made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board.

The lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court, claimed in part that CNN “chose to publish despite knowing or recklessly disregarding that Lt. Gov. Robinson’s data — including his name, date of birth, passwords, and the email address supposedly associated with the NudeAfrica account — were previously compromised by multiple data breaches,” referencing the website.

Robinson denied writing the messages and went on to lose the Gubernatorial election to Democrat Josh Stein.

In a post on X Friday Robinson said he has asked his attorney to “terminate any continued attempt to litigate with CNN on my or my family’s behalf.”

He went on to say, “I will not run next year, nor do I have plans to seek elected office in the future.”