Embattled North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson has hired a firm founded by a longtime Trump lawyer to investigate CNN’s report detailing years of racially insensitive and lewd comments on pornography sites by a username linked to the GOP candidate.
In a press release on Tuesday, Robinson announced he was retaining the services of the Binnall Law Group, a Virginia-based firm founded by Jesse Binnall—a lawyer who has represented former President Donald Trump and others in his orbit.
“As I’ve said from the beginning, the claims from CNN are salacious lies. I will not let these attacks distract us from sharing a better future for our state,” Robinson said in a press release.
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Robinson said his lawyers would “investigate where and how these false smears originated. I am confident that Binnall Law Group will leave no stone unturned and enable us to use every legal means to hold CNN accountable for their lies.”
Local North Carolina station WRAL reported that Robinson rejected offers from supporters to connect him with tech specialists to investigate the posts—a move that potentially helped convince some staffers to abruptly leave his campaigns, sources told the station.
“My team and I are looking forward to getting to the bottom of CNN’s claims and we will bring all our resources to bear in getting the facts,” Binnall said in the press release.
Binnall has long served as an attorney for former President Trump, working on several major federal cases in the last few years.
In 2020, Binnall was one of several lawyers who represented retired Gen. Michael Flynn when he withdrew his guilty plea for lying to the FBI, ABC News reported. Flynn was eventually pardoned by then-President Trump that December.
After the 2020 election, Binnall represented Trump in the campaign’s failed attempt to overturn the electoral vote in Nevada. “Donald Trump won... after you account for the fraud and irregularities that occurred,” Associated Press reported him as saying in November 2020.
He also was one of several lawyers Trump hired to represent him in his failed racketeering lawsuit against Hillary Clinton. In January 2023, a judge in Florida ordered the case thrown out and fined Trump and another attorney, Alina Habba, $1 million for filing a frivolous lawsuit.
Robinson and Binnall did not immediately return requests for comment from the Daily Beast.
