Some of Trump's supporters have focused on Coomer as the supposed evil mastermind. The Nashville outlet found . Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Those modems that ES&S [and other manufacturers] are putting in their voting machines are network connections, and that leaves them vulnerable to hacking by anybody who can connect to that network.. Spokespersons for both Dominion Voting Systems and AT&T told Reuters by email that claims that Dominion voting machines related to the election were held in the building were untrue. The post implies that the bombing was an attempt to stop the audit and cover up voter fraud. In a Dominion-themed segment, an Infowars host speaking during a November Washington, D.C., rally presaged the January 6 violence by hyping the . For election systems to be online, even momentarily, presents a serious problem, according to Appel. John Bazemore/AP In February, Dominion filed a lawsuit against Lindell and his company, alleging he defamed them by repeatedly claiming to have evidence their voting machines fraudulently flipped votes. Q&A of the Day - Voting Machines Used in Florida's 2022 Elections Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . Cerberus Capital previously owned the AT&T Building, onceknownas the BellSouth Building,where the company has operated its Tennessee headquarters since the building's erection in 1994. While the companys website states that zero of its voting tabulators are connected to the internet, ES&S told NBC News 14,000 of their DS200 tabulators with online modems are currently in use around the country. Joe Bidens Brother in Law, Steven Owens, is the cofounder of Staple Street Execs along with William Kennard (mentioned above).. Both sit on Dominion's board. Tre Hargett was elected by the Tennessee General Assembly to serve as Tennessees 37th secretary of state in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, 2017, and 2021. Spokespeople for both AT&T and Dominion told USA TODAY that AT&T was not contracted to audit Dominion voting machines, and no Dominion voting machines were being held in the AT&T building outside of which the RV exploded. Posts online claim that the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville was an attempt to cover up election fraud because AT&T was conducting an audit of Dominion Voting Systems machines and that. Shortly afterwards, social media users began circulating variants of a conspiracy theory holding that AT&T had been engaged to undertake a "forensic audit of Dominion voting machines," the latter of which were frequent targets of false election fraud claims made by President Donald Trump and his supports after Trump lost his re-election bid in November 2020: The implication of the conspiracy theory was that the explosion had been intended to destroy the machines before they were audited in order to cover up evidence of massive voting fraud. A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . "And I probably will. And then run the ballots through the machine a few times. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth.. An executive at Dominion Voting Systems moved to dismiss Newsmax as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit Friday after reaching a settlement with the right-wing media organization. Both Dominion Voting Systems andAT&T confirmed the communications company was not contracted to audit Dominion's machines. 4 min read. More on Dominion:Fact check: Viral photo shows fake logo and slogan for Dominion Voting Systems. The AT&T building in downtown Nashville. This material may not be reproduced without permission. Rupert Murdoch says some Fox hosts 'endorsed' false election claims The same Facebook post also said Dominion voting machines were being audited in the AT&T building that was destroyed by a bomb in Nashville. Were focusing on moving forward.. But election integrity advocates worry the disinformation won't truly begin to recede until political leaders such as Trump stop questioning the election's legitimacy. Spokespeople for both AT&T and Dominion have confirmed that AT&T did not hold a contract to audit Dominion, nor had any of Dominions equipment been moved to Nashville in preparation for such an audit. Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T,also told USA TODAY the claims are "not true.". causing widespread communications outages. Dominion has played a central role in a number of unfounded conspiracy theories alleging election fraud, from foreign ownership to switching votes from one candidate to another. Skoglund and his team developed a tool that scoured the internet to see if the central computers that program voting machines and run the entire election process at the precinct level were online. That agreement is long over, and they no longer have the . The post, which has been shared almost 900 times,makes two claims:A buildingdamaged in the Nashville explosion was holding Dominion Voting Systems machines set to be audited, and in New York, the company that burned was under investigation for printing and shipping fake ballots to Pennsylvania. The bulletin circulated among state election officials earlier this week and publicly shared online, Friday marks the first time CISA has used its vulnerability disclosure program to probe . The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle owned by Warner. Spokespeople for AT&T and Dominion confirmed to the AP that AT&T had no contract to audit Dominion machines, and no Dominion machines were to be sent to Nashville. It is true Kennard serves on the board of Staple Street Capital (not Staple Street execs as the posts say). NBC News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, which declined to comment on the topic of modem security in voting machine tabulators and scanners. "So, the explosion 'just happened . "So, the explosion just happened to be at the AT&T location where they just so happen to control the cooling system for the super computer and house the dominion voting machines and drives for forensic audit", "Wait, the bombing in Nashville was at the AT&T data center right after they got the contract to audit the Dominion voting machines?,"onefrom Dec. 26 reads. ", In an email to PolitiFact, a Dominion spokesperson said the company and AT&T are calling on everyone to reject these baseless rumors: "Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities.". Across the country on Christmas Eve, a printing press company in New York burned to the ground. As people experience their own individual Internet bubbles, it can be hard to recognize just how much misinformation exists and how the current information ecosystem compares with previous years. Progressive Democrats Introduce First Bill to Tighten Rail Safety This is bogus. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. President Donald Trump's attorney Lin Wood reportedly experienced a series of ups and downs Sunday in a court battle to ensure Georgia elections officials do not wipe Dominion voting machines, and won a temporary restraining order following a night-time Zoom hearing. But he has no idea if that will ever be possible. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. While a building was destroyed in a blast in Nashville on Christmas Day, and a printing company in New York state caught fire on Christmas Eve and later burned down, neither building held evidence related to the U.S. elections. Reuters debunked this claim here . Williamson County to ditch Dominion voting machines after state review Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos is not ruling out legal action against President Trump, whose surrogates have spent nearly two months alleging the Nov. 3 election, which Trump lost, may . The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. Immediately, Coomer knew things would blow up. Please note the instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. False claims about the election, Nashville - mcall.com Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays. More:Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. How the Dominion Voting Machine Controversy Shaped - Newsweek The AT&T building the posts likely refer to was not the one outside which the bomb exploded on Christmas morning. All rights reserved. There was no evidence of a shooting, but both officers and witnesses heard a warning blare from the RV: "Evacuate now. Earlier this week, Skoglund showed NBC three election systems were still online even after officials had been told they were vulnerable. Dominion Lawsuit Showcases Paul Ryan's Influence over Fox News Channel's Editorial Control. Posted By: Dreadnought, 2/28/2023 9:52:47 PM Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News highlights former House Speaker Paul Ryan's alleged influence over Fox News Channel's (FNC) editorial control, reportedly urging . The Christmas morning bomb went off on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building. AT&T does not hold a contract to audit Dominions software or machines and did not have any of the companys equipment in its Nashville building. "I've been threatened more times than I could even count. In an email to PolitiFact, a Dominion spokesperson said the company and AT&T are calling on everyone to reject these baseless rumors: "Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities.". Did City Blue Imaging Print Voting Ballots, Then Burn Down? Dominion Voting Systems which commands more than a third of the voting-machine market without having Washington lobbyists has hired its first, a high-powered firm that includes a. Law enforcement authorities have suggested that Warner may have been paranoid about 5G technology, a QAnon-related conspiracy theory that makes an array of unproven claims including that it helps spread COVID-19 and is used as a spying tool by the government. In preparing for this November's election, the company gamed out all sorts of worst-case scenarios, but it wasn't on anyone's radar that Dominion and its employees could become the targets of threats. Its crazy, the amount of misinformation that you see, Mealy said. The company, which sells electronic voting hardware and software, contends that some Fox News employees deliberately amplified false claims by Trump supporters that Dominion machines had changed . AT&T did not have a contract to audit Dominion machines and was not holding Dominion machines in its Nashville building, both companies confirmed to The Associated Press. Claims that two buildings that were destroyed on Christmas Day were both holding evidence related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election are untrue. The electronic voting system company accused the television network of spreading lies that Dominion machines were used to rig the 2020 election against Donald Trump. Some posts take the claim a step further, alleging that the former owner of the building was a board member of a firm that owns Dominion. Jim Greer, associate vice president for corporate communications at AT&T, was blunt in an email response to PolitiFact: "That is not true," he wrote. Read more about our fact-checking workhere . Oltmann claimed that Coomer said with a laugh on the call that he would make sure Trump didn't win the election. AT&T was not contracted to audit Dominion Voting Systems' machines, and no Dominion machines were being held in the building outside of which the bomb exploded, spokespeople for both AT&T and Dominion confirmed. This is part of The Associated Press ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform. The reason? subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. However, he is not tied to Joe Biden and is not his sister Valerie Biden Owens husband. The AT&T buildingon Second Avenueis owned by BellSouth Telecommunications, an operating company of AT&T, according to local records. Owners of Dominion Voting Systems,(the company many people are accusing of voter fraud) are former executives from Cerebus," another post reads. "God is at the wheel, but we are the warriors that must do the work of men to repel evil," said one of numerous posts on the conservative social media site Parler. Dominion told AFP the claim is "another bizarre lie being spread by known conspiracy theorists.". "You can see as theres a line flying in, theres a little bit of a glow and then theres the explosion," a narrator says in the video. Dominion Voting Systems story should terrify AZ - The Arizona Republic Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? Ohio county rejects Dominion voting machines in response to pressure All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. There may not be answers to the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville anytime soon. Both companies have also denied that AT&T held a contract to audit machines from Dominion Voting Systems (other Fact Checks on these claims can be seen here and here ). Hart said that it has approximately 1,600 such tabulators in use in 11 counties in Michigan. No amount of transparency at the county and state level can really combat the sort of megaphone that Trump wields, Kiniry says. Its disgusting. reads the post caption from Red Pill Radio, a Facebook account that bears the slogan of the, However, the firm cited in that version of the claim Cerberus Capital Management doesnt own Dominion nor is it connected to Staple Street Capital, which, PolitiFact's partnership with Facebook here, Our ethics policy for PolitiFact journalists, WRAL partners with PolitiFact NC to fact check political stories. Once they had identified such systems, they contacted the relevant election officials and also provided the information to reporter Kim Zetter, who published the findings in Vices Motherboard in August. On Christmas Day, an RV in Nashville, Tennessee, exploded, severelydamaging many of the buildings around it in the explosion. The coalition says it is no longer certain that the number of states is correct, so the figure has been removed from the article. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536. The report claims the results of the election in . All those. Fact check: Nashville bombing, NY fire unrelated, not tied to election "I'm in fear for my family's safety. . Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. "The loud speaker was to warn people that the bomb was going to go off.. 5:30a on Christmas morning was picked to ensure that nobody was around.. Skoglund says those include the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. He claimed on his podcast that he'd infiltrated a call with Denver-area antifa members that included a man identified as "Eric from Dominion.". Dominion has no connection to AT&T, the building, Nashville, family members of the Bidens or the Clintons, and Staple Street is not owned by Cerberus, said Tony Fratto, a partner at the PR firm Hamilton Place Strategies who emailed the AP on behalf of Dominion. View list by county(.pdf) and learn more about each system using the links below. Some have also received threatening letters. Smartmatic, a competitor of Dominion's that has also been the subject of wild rumors, has demanded that numerous news networks take back their allegations against it. . The media intelligence platform Zignal Labs, in an analysis performed at NPR's request, found that misinformation narratives related to vote-by-mail systems alone were mentioned across the media spectrum more than 40 million times since Election Day. The row housed Simply the Best $10 Boutique at 176 (here), Ensemble boutique at 174 (www.ensemblenashville.com/) and the Pride & Glory Tattoo Parlor at 172 (www.prideandglorytattoo.com/), as well as apartments on the upper floors (here). Then, a plume of smoke rises behind three light poles. Shasta to become 1st California county to drop Dominion voting machines "The voting machine lobby, led by the biggest company, ES&S, believes they are above the law," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Intelligence Committee who co-signed the letter.. Similar claims have been shared in hundreds of public posts, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. AT&T and Verizon and so on try and protect as best they can the security of their phone network from the rest of the internet, but its still part of the internet, Appel explained. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. AT&T had a contract to conduct a forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems in Nashville just prior to a December 2020 explosion in that city. And we knew that wasn't true. More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. ", Both Snopes and AFP reached the same conclusion. ( here and here ). The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle that Warner owned. ", More:Nashville police bodycam footage shows raw moments of chaos before and after explosion. Breitbart, by Hannah Bleau Original Article. Much of the voting equipment was by Dominion. Staple Street Capital has a managing director and co-founder named Stephen Owens. Select an Infowars smear of Dominion Voting Systems. DNA from human remains found at the scene matched Warner, and investigators found financial records for components that he may have used to construct the bomb. Facebook post:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. After that podcast went out, the threats quickly arrived. In . A spokesperson for Dominion Voting Systems confirmed to Reuters via email that the Stephen Owens at Staple Street has no family ties or business affiliations with Bidens sister, Valerie Biden Owens. "AT&T got a contract to do forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and those machines were being moved to Nashville this past week," one Dec. 27 post says. "Very, very interesting.". We found over 35 [voting systems] had been left online and were still continuing to find more, Kevin Skoglund, a senior technical advisor at the election security advocacy group National Election Defense Coalition, told NBC News. The 23-page report signed by a former Republican congressional candidate with a history of spreading misinformation about Michigan's election claims Dominion "is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.". Rating: False About this rating On Christmas. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Fact check: Debunking conspiracy links between Nashville explosion "Dominion and AT&T have both called on the media and the public to reject the baseless rumors circulating on social media, which suggest without evidence that there was some election-related connection to the Nashville explosion," a spokesperson for Dominion told USA TODAY. "The specific steps taken would depend on the recommendation and the timeline required to make changes effectively.. That user did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment, either. Dominionwas acquired by private equity firm Staple Street Capital, co-founded by financiers Hootan Yaghoobzadeh and StephenOwens, in 2018. There is no reason to suppose that it would be likely, or even possible, that these buildings, would be used to audit voting machines. He believes there is time to make real change before the 2020 election. Then Acting Undersecretary for Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security Jeanette Manfra said those words in 2017, testifying before Congress while she was responsible for the security of the nations voting system. This conspiracy theory has been debunked by various experts as reported by Reuters here and other fact checkers including Snopes, Factcheck.org and PolitiFact here , here and here . More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. Rumors about an investigation into the company do not even appear in web searches until after the fire. Some shorter posts here and here say: Wait, the bombing in Nashville was at the AT&T Data Center right after they got the contract to audit the Dominion Voting machines? By Helen Coster and Jack Queen (Reuters) -A new filing from Dominion Voting Systems became public on Monday, as an April trial approaches in the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by the voting technology company against Fox News over the U.S. cable news giant's coverage of the 2020 presidential election. Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities, Dominion Voting Systems added. Law enforcement authorities have suggested that Warner may have been paranoid about 5G technology, a QAnon-related conspiracy theory that makes an array of unproven claims including that ithelps spread COVID-19and is used as a spying tool by the government. Dominion Voting Systems previously sent OAN letters threatening to sue, accusing the network of spreading the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that the election-technology company manipulated. And thats not what were about. Copyright 2023 Politifact. However, there are no news reports available online that mention that the business was involved with an investigation related to the election, and Google searches for any mention of the company and an investigation into ballot fraud from the start of September to the date of the fire do not reveal even online rumors to that effect circulating before the fire broke out (here), The companys Facebook page has addressed rumors that have spread since the fire, saying: To the misinformed people on @Twitter and @instagram #cityblueimaging does not print #ballots (here). There is no evidence that the AT&T switching center damaged by the explosion (here) housed a supercomputer being used to alter the elections outcome. Owens, the other co-founder of Staple Street Capital,did not work for Cerberus, despite the post's claim. On Monday, The Associated Press debunked claims that Dominion has any connection with AT&T. The companys sales manager, John Mealey ( here , here ), also spoke about the rumor to local ABC affiliate WHAM-TV, saying: Its crazy, the amount of misinformation that you see.. . The post provides no links to evidence for their allegations. Even if an election is run perfectly, it doesn't matter to a sizable portion of the public who believes it was unfair. Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. provides voting machines and tabulators. Other posts on social media have gone a step further, alleging that Dominion is tied to the bombing through ownership of the affected AT&T building. All rights reserved. A Dominion voting machine in Georgia. No available external evidence suggests AT&T was involved in any such audit, either. These are real, tangible things coming out of these baseless accusations.". IE 11 is not supported. An online search turns up segments on the pro-Trump outlets Newsmax and One America News Network discussing the allegations as well as people accusing Coomer of treason and calling for him to be publicly executed. False. By the time the news conference occurred on Nov. 19, Mr. Trump's campaign had already prepared an internal memo on many of the outlandish claims about the company, Dominion Voting Systems, and. In the weeks following the election, the election technology firm Dominion Voting Systems has been the target of baseless allegations of election fraud, according to the Washington Post.Now a viral Facebook post attempts to connect President-elect Joe Biden to the company by claiming his sister is married to Stephen Owens, who, the post alleges, owns Dominion Voting Systems. The company put the building back on the market shortly thereafter; MetLife Inc., throughsubsidiary Prefco Fourteen, now owns the building, public records show. There is no evidence that the New York printing company whose building burnt down on Christmas Day was under investigation for printing false ballots. While the voting machines themselves are not designed to be online, the larger voting systems in many states end up there, putting the voting process at risk. Kevin Skoglund, senior technical advisor at the National Election Defense Coalition. But that is an overstatement, according to a team of 10 independent cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections. Before starting Staple Street Capital, Yaghoobzadeh worked as a senior vice president for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. In August 2021, Dominion Voting Systems programmed machines for the county's upcoming elections.
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