RALEIGH — A rumor that a staffer leaked information to CNN about former North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s past comments on an adult website are untrue, according to the individual at the heart of the claim.
On Sept. 19, 2024, CNN published an article that said Robinson had “made a series of inflammatory comments” made on a pornographic website called “Nude Africa.”
Robinson denied the report in a video statement posted to X in which he also said he was staying in the race.
CNN’s article tied Robinson to comments made between 2008 and 2012 on Nude Africa by tracing an email address called “minisoldr” across various social media platforms such as X, YouTube, Facebook and Disqus, and websites like Nude Africa and Black Planet.
However, the CNN article did not cite human sources or how the authors came across the handle, which led to speculation among politicos in North Carolina as to who may be involved, including a rumor that a Robinson staffer had leaked the information to the outlet.
The staffer named in some of the rumors is Patrick Riley, who is currently in the insurance industry instead of politics. In an interview with North State Journal, Riley vehemently denied the allegations.
“No ma’am, I didn’t do it,” Riley said, adding he had also heard the rumor “through the grapevine” that he was the CNN source.
Riley, who had worked in the lieutenant governor’s office and served as director of campaign operations, was among several staffers to depart the campaign following the CNN article’s publication. Others included Robinson’s top adviser Conrad Pogorzelski III and campaign manager Chris Rodriguez.
“I would never do something like that. I love Mark,” said Riley, who had worked for Robinson’s campaign for lieutenant governor while he was still in college. “I want the best for Mark. Of course, I didn’t do that. And, of course, if I did do it, I wouldn’t be struggling to find a job in politics right now.”
Riley expressed frustration over the rumor that a staffer leaked the information, which he claimed has been spread around the General Assembly.
“This hurts other members of the Robinson team that were out busting their tails for five years for this guy,” said Riley, adding he is happy his story is coming out “so that it maybe will help those guys out.”
In a statement to North State Journal, Pogorzelski expressed similar frustrations.
“My team and I devoted our lives to this campaign,” said Pogorzelski. “Anyone who believes I or my staff would torpedo years of sacrifice in the final weeks by working with a liberal media outlet is completely delusional. I invite anybody spreading this slanderous lie to come forward publicly, rather than hiding behind anonymous accusations.”
Rodriguez declined to comment.
Riley told North State Journal he was not very “tech savvy.” He went on to describe an effort to access the minisoldr email account following the release of the CNN article — an effort which, until now, has not been reported on.
Riley said staff had access to one personal Gmail address held by Robinson with the handle, “Iamthemajority,” and they were unaware of the minisoldr account.
“I didn’t even know that email existed … minisoldr, whatever,” said Riley. “But when we got word that CNN was giving us 48 hours, our first thought was there’s no way this is real. There’s absolutely no way.
“So, we’re, you know, up in arms and we’re trying to figure it out,” said Riley, who said he thought Robinson was at an event in Nashville, Tennessee, at that time. “We call Mark. Conrad talks to Mark and Mark denied it all to everybody 100%.”
According to Riley, when the campaign tried to access the email, none of the known passwords used by Robinson worked.
“I’m sitting there with Conrad, and I try to log in myself because Mark’s password was the same pretty much for everything,’ said Riley. “This password was not the same. I could not get in and, again, I was doing this sitting right beside Conrad and Chris Rodriguez.”
Riley went on to say that the recovery email was Iamthemajorityusa@gmail.com, which is the email staffers knew and was the one they had used for the past six years, along with Robinson’s personal cell phone.
“And it was his phone number that you could send a text to get into minisoldr@yahoo.com,” Riley said. “So, to me, that meant, ‘Hey, he did it’.”
“Obviously he still denies that he did it,” Riley said. But to us, that meant, if ‘forgot password’ leads you from minisoldr to the email that we know that you have … unless CNN or Josh Stein or somebody had his phone and got a text message to his personal phone number, they couldn’t have got into that email to hack it or whatever. It was him.”
Two sources familiar with the campaign confirmed on background to North State Journal that Riley’s claims about accessing the minisoldr email were accurate.
Riley also told North State Journal that whoever was pushing this rumor was a “sorry human being,” and he had heard Robinson himself had said Riley leaked the information.
Matt Hurley, senior strategist and owner of Southeastern Strategies, took over the Robinson campaign duties after staffers left following the CNN report. Hurley told North State Journal he didn’t know Riley and declined to comment on Riley’s account of accessing the minisoldr email.
Hurley said the campaign was “mainly focused on hurricane relief” following the CNN report and didn’t respond to additional inquiries.
North State Journal also reached out to Robinson directly regarding the CNN leak rumor but has not received a response.
In mid-October 2024, Robinson filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN in Wake County, calling the report a “high-tech lynching.” The lawsuit accused CNN of using “unverifiable, dark web-sourced data breach files” and the outlet had ignored that Robinson’s personal data had been compromised in data breaches. Additionally, Robinson had demanded a retraction until CNN turned over its source material for forensic inspection.
Just months later, in January 2025, Robinson announced the lawsuit was being dropped. In a press release, Robinson thanked the Binnall Law Group, who had been overseeing the case, and said the “investigation of CNN and their ‘sources’ yielded tremendous results and brought closure to our family during what has been an unimaginably dark situation.”
“The fact of the matter is this: the price we have paid in entering the political arena will never be recognized,” Robinson said in a release about dropping the lawsuit. “There is no dollar amount high enough. While it has been the honor of a lifetime to serve the people of North Carolina, the continued political persecution of my family and loved ones is a cost I am unwilling to continue to bear.”
Robinson also said he would not run in 2025, “nor do I have plans to seek elected office in the future.” He did say that he would continue to “utilize his platform” to back issues, but he would “do so from the sidelines.”
The former lieutenant governor does appear to be keeping to that statement and has been politically active in the past few months, endorsing Alex Nelson, the candidate for GOP chair in Iredell County. Robinson and his wife, Yolanda, also attended an April 7 event in Claremont in support of Nelson. Additionally, Robinson allegedly spoke at a GOP-related event held in Durham in March.
