RALEIGH, N.C. (WGHP) — Just over a month after North Carolina’s lieutenant governor announced a defamation lawsuit against both CNN and a former employee of a Greensboro porn shop, the allegations will have a day in court.

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is running as the Republican nominee for governor, announced the lawsuit on Oct. 15 in the wake of two articles that linked the candidate to a Greensboro pornography store and extreme comments on a porn website.

In an article published Sept. 3, Greensboro man Louis Love Money told The Assembly that Robinson would rent or buy pornography from him multiple times a week. Money even released a song with his band Trailer Park Orchestra about Robinson allegedly owing him money.

Robinson’s lawsuit claims that the lieutenant governor did not have any interest in pornography but admits that he spent time with Money in the late 90s while working at a Papa John’s near the porn shop where Money worked.

The Assembly is not named in the lawsuit. However, the suit derides the publication in the complaint as “a publication with ties to George Soros,” a prominent left-wing philanthropist and donor.

About two weeks after The Assembly article was published, CNN releases a bombshell report attributing to Robinson incendiary comments made on the porn forum NudeAfrica, in which the user refers to himself as a “black NAZI!,” disparages Martin Luther King Jr. and wishes for the return of slavery.

Money filed to dismiss the defamation lawsuit against him the day after it was filed.

Court documents show that a hearing has been set to take up Money’s motion on Nov. 18, 2024. This will be two weeks after the election in which North Carolina voters will decide if Robinson will become the state’s next governor.

In the initial filing of the case, Robinson’s team asked for $50 million in punitive damages against the defendants. An amended filing was submitted on Monday that reduced that total to $25,000.