A defiant Mark Robinson (R) said today he is suing CNN over a story that linked the North Carolina gubernatorial candidate to racist and lewd posts on a porn site message board.

Said Robinson: “We’re going after them for what they’ve done!”

“Nearly 200 mobile devices of people who visited Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious ‘pedophile island’ in the years prior to his death left an invisible trail of data pointing back to their own homes and offices,” Wired reports.

“Maps of these visitations generated by a troubled international data broker with defense industry ties, discovered last week by Wired, document the numerous trips of wealthy and influential individuals seemingly undeterred by Epstein’s status as a convicted sex offender.”

Former Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler and his wife, Bridget—known for promoting “family values” and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric—first had a sexual encounter with his rape accuser in 2021 as they “hunted” for a threesome partner, the Daily Beast reports.

The names of up to 150 people tied to Jeffrey Epstein were released as part of a massive document dump involving the late sex trafficker.

The documents are now being reviewed by the news media.

“Here’s a direct quote: ‘If I said what I know about both candidates, they’d have to cancel the election.’ That’s what Jeffrey told me in 2016.”

— Mark Epstein, quoted by the New York Post, recalling a conversation he had with his brother about the showdown between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

The first of 150-plus names connected to the Jeffrey Epstein case are expected be unsealed on Wednesday, The Messenger reports. 

Police are expanding their investigation into Florida Republican Chair Christian Ziegler to probe whether he broke any laws when he allegedly recorded a sexual encounter with a woman accusing him of rape, Politico reports.

According to an affidavit, the alleged victim told police she didn’t consent to being recorded.

“A sex video involving Sarasota School Board member Bridget Ziegler and an unidentified woman has been recovered by police as part of the ongoing criminal investigation of a rape allegation made against Bridget’s husband, Christian Ziegler,” the Florida Trident reports.

“The video, according to sources, was obtained by police after a search warrant was executed on Christian Ziegler’s cell phone and Google account in November to recover evidence in connection with the alleged rape.”

A federal judge ruled the names of nearly 200 people connected to pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein are to be unsealed as early as January 2, The Messenger reports.

Semafor: “The Senate sodomy scandal brings to mind the saga of former Rep. Jon Hinson, Republican of Mississippi. Running for reelection in 1980, Hinson made a stunning confession: Four years earlier, working as an aide to Rep. Thad Cochran, he had been arrested for solicitation at the Iwo Jima Memorial, then a popular gay cruising spot. And if that wasn’t shocking enough, Hinson also admitted to having narrowly survived a fire at a gay pornographic cinema in southeast D.C. in which nine men were killed. Hinson denied that he was gay or bisexual and managed to win reelection. In the words of one supporter, ‘some folks would rather have a queer conservative than a macho liberal.'”

“Alas, the tolerance of Hinson’s constituents for a ‘queer conservative’ would be exhausted just a few months later, when Hinson was arrested for administering oral sex to a Library of Congress employee in a Longworth House Office building bathroom. That the other man was Black did not help Hinson in his conservative southern constituency, and following a huge public outcry, he resigned.”

“Moms for Liberty, a national right-wing advocacy group, was born in Florida as a response to Covid-19 school closures and mask mandates. But it quickly became just as well known for pushing policies branded as anti-LGBTQ. by opponents,” the New York Times reports.

“So when one of its founders, Bridget Ziegler, recently told the police that she and her husband, who is under criminal investigation for sexual assault, had a consensual sexual encounter with another woman, the perceived disconnect between her public stances and private life fueled intense pressure for her to resign from the Sarasota County School Board.”

Politico interviews Susanna Gibson (D), whose Virginia state House of Delegates campaign was rocked by a recorded video of her performing sex acts online with her husband.

“The episode also detonated a debate in Virginia and beyond about digital and sexual privacy in 21st-century politics. In a possible reflection of shifting social norms, Gibson nearly won the race anyway — she lost by less than 1,000 votes and has not ruled out a return to electoral politics in the future.”

“A former executive assistant to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who had accused him of groping her has filed a lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted her,” CBS News reports.

“Brittany Commisso, who worked for Cuomo starting in 2017, filed the lawsuit under the Adult Survivors Act, which had expanded the time limit under which people could sue for sexual assault or harassment that had previously been beyond the statue of limitations. The window to sue expired at midnight Thursday.”

For nearly two years, Madeline Cuomo — sister of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — back channeled with grass-roots activists to help smear her brother’s accusers, the New York Times reports.

“It is unclear how much Mr. Cuomo knew about his sister’s efforts. He does not appear to have directly communicated with the supporters. But in the messages reviewed by The Times, some of them sprinkled with typos, Ms. Cuomo repeatedly stated that she was keeping her brother updated and acting at his direction.”