North Carolina's Republican candidate for governor Mark Robinson filed a US$50 million (S$65 million) defamation lawsuit against CNN on Tuesday (Oct 15), saying the network’s report that he called himself a "black Nazi" more than a decade ago on a pornography website and made other inflammatory comments was "recklessly false".

The lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of Wake County, North Carolina, by Robinson, an African-American who is also the lieutenant governor in North Carolina, denied that he made the comments.

It called CNN's September report a "malicious hit job" that was based on unverifiable data and was timed to derail his chances in the state's Nov 5 gubernatorial election, where he faces Democrat Josh Stein, the state's attorney general.

A CNN spokesperson declined to comment. Attorneys for Robinson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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