RALEIGH, N.C. — Brian LiVecchi, a top adviser to North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, is resigning from his post as chief of staff and general counsel in the office of the lieutenant governor — the biggest move in a new wave of coming departures following allegations that Robinson made racist and lewd comments on a pornographic website more than a decade ago.
In addition to LiVecchi, Director of Communications John Wesley Waugh, Policy Director Jonathan Harris, and Director of Government Affairs Nathan Lewis have stated their intention to resign, people familiar with the matter told WRAL. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared professional retribution.
The resignations — which represent half of the office’s staff — are expected to become effective in the coming days, WRAL learned Wednesday.
This comes after the campaign said in a news release Sunday that senior adviser Conrad Pogorzelski III, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, the campaign's finance director and the deputy campaign manager “have stepped down from their roles with the campaign.” Information on new campaign staffers would be forthcoming soon, the release said.
“I appreciate the efforts of these team members who have made the difficult choice to step away from the campaign, and I wish them well in their future endeavors," Robinson said in the release.
Pogorzelski, who helped Robinson get elected lieutenant governor in 2020 in his first bid for public office and later became his chief of staff, said separately on Sunday that additional staffers also left the campaign — the deputy finance director, two political directors and the director of operations.
Pogorzelski, in a text, said that he “along with others from the campaign have left of our own accord.”
The CNN report on Thursday unearthed past posts it said Robinson left on a porn site’s message boards in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI;" said he enjoyed transgender pornography; said in 2012 he preferred Hitler to then-President Barack Obama; and slammed the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “worse than a maggot.”