Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson sued CNN and a former Greensboro porn store employee on Tuesday, saying they defamed the Republican gubernatorial candidate in news reports about him.

A CNN investigation published last month found that an account associated with Robinson made a series of explicitly racist and sexist comments on a pornography website. Robinson denied making the comments, calling them “salacious tabloid garbage.”

And in a separate report by North Carolina online magazine The Assembly, a former Greensboro porn store employee, Louis Money, said Robinson frequented the establishment in the 1990s and early 2000s. His local band also produced a music video about Robinson, who allegedly owed him money from that time.

During a news conference outside the lieutenant governor’s residence, Robinson and his attorney Jesse Binnall said the stories amounted to “election interference” and constituted a “high-tech lynching” – borrowing a term used by then-Supreme Court The Court nominee Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearing when he faced allegations of sexual harassment.

“This is a high-tech lynching of a candidate who has been targeted from day one by people who disagree with me politically and want to see me destroyed,” Robinson said.

The lawsuit, filed in Wake County court, comes weeks after Robinson first hired an attorney and promised to investigate the origins of the CNN report. He is seeking $50 million in damages from both Money and CNN.

The lawsuit provides no explicit evidence that Robinson was not responsible for the online posts, which included comments from the account calling himself a “black Nazi” and a “pervert” and his support for reinstating slavery expressed.

Binnall, a Virginia-based attorney who previously represented former President Donald Trump in several cases related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, said he had hired an investigative team in recent weeks.

He called the lawsuit a “first step” and said he and Robinson refuted the CNN story as “false.” And he alleged that other people and organizations were involved in a conspiracy to damage Robinson’s candidacy, but declined to name them.

The lawsuit alleges that CNN backed up its reporting with data that “appeared to be derived from hacked data breach files obtained from the Dark Web.”

WRAL has reported that Robinson declined multiple offers of technical support to investigate the origins of the online posts.

CNN’s press office did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The lawsuit calls Money’s music video a “deliberate lie” and says he concocted a “fantasy” “to embarrass and tear down (Robinson) and seek his own fifteen minutes of fame.”

When reached by phone Tuesday, Money laughed off the lawsuit. He doesn’t plan to hire a lawyer, he said, but “I’m looking for a publicist.”

“First, I hope that Trailer Park Orchestra gets about 10,000 more additional views,” Money told NC Newsline. “Because none of this is a news story unless my band releases a music video about it.”

And he joked that he would sue Robinson “for $25 for the stolen porn that he still owes me.”

“You can’t sue me if I tell the truth,” Money said. “Are you allowed to ‘f— you?’ print,” he said in response to Robinson’s lawsuit.

Binnall’s investigative team contacted CNN staff and the websites involved but was “stonewalled,” the lawyer said. It remains to be seen how the lawsuit will proceed and when a disclosure period to release the evidence will begin.

Robinson faces Attorney General Josh Stein in the race for governor. He will appear on the ballot today, with town halls scheduled for this afternoon in Davidson and Cabarrus counties, as Stein continues his campaign and has a significant lead in the polls.