North Carolina’s former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is dropping his defamation lawsuit against CNN, and potentially calling it quits on his political career.
In a series of posts on X, Robinson says it’s become clear fighting the network is “futile," and he will stop pursuing legal action.
He also wrote that his "investigation of CNN and their 'sources' yielded tremendous results and brought closure to our family during what has been an unimaginably dark situation."
Robinson had sued CNN for $50 million in the final weeks of his unsuccessful campaign for governor after the network linked him to dozens of lewd, racist and inflammatory comments made on a porn site called Nude Africa more than a decade ago.
They included comments in which Robinson allegedly referred to himself as a "Black Nazi," called for the reinstatement of slavery, said he enjoys watching transgender pornography and described a time he spied on women taking showers in a locker room.
Robinson, a Republican, went on to lose the race by 15 points to Democrat Josh Stein.
Robinson also said Friday that he was done with politics.
"I will not run next year, nor do I have plans to seek elected office in the future," he wrote.