The post implies that the bombing was an attempt to stop the audit and cover up voter fraud. The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. Full Story. Thank you for supporting our journalism. The broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. 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. Mike Lindell Claims Dominion Voting 'Cover-Up' Is 'Coming Apart' 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 New York Attorney Generals office said they could not confirm nor deny any investigation. This weekend, both Fox Business Network and Newsmax appeared to answer those demands with segments debunking some claims. Once a hacker starts talking to the voting machine through the modem, the hacker cannot just change these unofficial election results, they can hack the software in the voting machine and make it cheat in future elections, he said. A public relations firmtold the Associated Presson behalf of Dominion that the company "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. For Coomer, that means his life may be forever changed. There is no evidence to support the claim that the explosionin Nashville and fire in Rochester, New York,that occurred around the holidays point toward a broader conspiracy to hide election malfeasance. Detailed voter instructions for the Infinity voting unit, How to Vote an Optical Scan Ballot with Unisyn Equipment, Public Records Policy and Records Request Form. The Company offers voting systems and scanning devices, as well as resource planning, training management, quality control . Fact check: A New York printing company that burned down was not under Audit of Dominion voting machines in Wisconsin shows minor issues - TMJ4 PolitiFact - No, AT&T was not conducting an audit of Dominion Voting CLAIM: AT&T got a contract to do a forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems machines and those machines were recently moved to Nashville, Tennessee to the same AT&T building that was damaged in a Christmas morning explosion. APS ASSESSMENT: False. Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays bombing, causing widespread communications outages. Dominion was the first to snap. Nashville's date on June 7 at GEODIS Park will feature Kelsea Ballerini and BRELAND -- and now, The Boykinz. Investigators say the explosion in Nashville was perpetrated by a 63-year-old Tennessean named Anthony Warner, who blared a warning to nearby people from his RV requesting they evacuate before the bomb detonated. Coomer oversees product strategy and security for Dominion Voting Systems, the Denver-based company that has suddenly found itself at the center of many of President Trump's false claims about. ", More:Nashville police bodycam footage shows raw moments of chaos before and after explosion. But that is an overstatement, according to a team of 10 independent cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections. A widely sharedpost on Facebook alleges that four days before the bombing, a rumor circulated that AT&T was awarded a contract to audit Dominion's voting machines, which were supposedly being sent to Nashville. New Dominion filing made public as defamation lawsuit heads to trial One of the largest voting machine suppliers in the U.S. Dominion Voting Systems sued Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who represented former President Donald Trump, after they . That team of election security experts say that last summer, they discovered some systems are, in fact, online. 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. Before starting Staple Street Capital, Yaghoobzadeh worked as a senior vice president for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. 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.. Jake Rollow, director of communications for the Michigan Department of State, said in a statement to NBC News, Even though the results are unofficial, if these unofficial results were disrupted or manipulated, it could still cause confusion on Election Day., "The department will consider the advisory commissions recommendations to improve the security of the process," Rollow continued. "The specific steps taken would depend on the recommendation and the timeline required to make changes effectively.. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". Some posts have said the Nashville explosion was caused by a missile. One of the co-founders of Staple Street Capital (staplestreetcapital.com/ ), not Staple Street execs, Hootan Yaghoobzadeh, worked at Cerberus prior to starting Staple Street in 2009 (here). hide caption. No amount of transparency at the county and state level can really combat the sort of megaphone that Trump wields, Kiniry says. 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. Dominion Voting Systems hits conservative networks, Trump ally with $1. 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. If you have super majorities, Tennessee is like an R plus twenty state. A post on Facebook theorized that the two disasters were connected by a plot to steal the election. Sumit Ganguli - Harvard University - New York City - LinkedIn Reuters debunked this claim here . The services and oversight found in the Secretary of State's office reach every department and agency in state government. False claims about the election, Nashville - mcall.com Similar claims have already been debunked by Reuters (here). 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. Newsmax TV aired a stunning fact-check on Monday of claims made on the network about voting companies used in the 2020 presidential election. All rights reserved. On Nov. 21, a group protested in front of Dominion's Denver headquarters, waving American flags and signs saying "fraud equals arrests." Williamson County to ditch Dominion voting machines after state review U.S. finds no evidence flaws in Dominion voting machines - CBS News That flood reached Dominion the week after the election, according to Zignal, and misinformation related to the company's machines has been mentioned more than 10 million times since then. The Nashville outlet found . Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. The AT&T building the posts likely refer to was not the one outside which the bomb exploded on Christmas morning. It also claims the AT&T building that was affected by the bomb is where those machines were being stored. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. 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.". While lawmakers questioned them about foreign influence in their supply chains and whether they would comply with more federal reporting requirements, the presence of modems in some of their tabulators was mentioned but not pursued. 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. Both Dominion Voting Systems andAT&T confirmed the communications company was not contracted to audit Dominion's machines. There is no evidence that suggests that the explosion was election-related. The conspiracy theory appears to have originated in a tweet by Lin Wood, an attorney and Trump supporter, who has pushed a number of false election claims. RUMOR ALERT: Dominion Voting Systems Fraud Claims Were focusing on moving forward.. Shasta will be the first of 40 California counties that used Dominion in the November 2022 election to drop the voting system, Shasta County Clerk/Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen told the . Swing-state counties that used Dominion voting machines mostly voted The AT&T building in downtown Nashville. A Facebook post (here) shared more than a thousand times has falsely claimed: In New York a printing press company, under investigation for printing and shipping fake voting ballots into Pennsylvania, burned to the ground Xmas morning.. 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? Voting machines didn't steal the election. But they're a terrible 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. 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. 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. Even for elections nights., Appel agreed. Both sit on Dominion's board. The coalition says it is no longer certain that the number of states is correct, so the figure has been removed from the article. More on Dominion:Fact check: Viral photo shows fake logo and slogan for Dominion Voting Systems. Trump Campaign Knew Lawyers' Voting Machine Claims Were Baseless, Memo Examples can be seen here , here and here . A Dominion spokeswoman said other company employees have also gone to more secure locations, been threatened and been digitally stalked. Kevin Skoglund, senior technical advisor at the National Election Defense Coalition. Its disgusting. Some of Trump's supporters have focused on Coomer as the supposed evil mastermind. At its core is the prediction thatan alleged mass arrest ofhigh-profile Democrats and celebritieswould be carried out while now-former President Donald Trump secretly savedthe world from a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. Thank you for supporting our journalism. PolitiFact - No, AT&T was not conducting an audit of Dominion Voting 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. The cities of West Bend and Mequon's Dominion machine audit found one vote changed each after their hand counts. Singer reportedly funded the original investigation The BoykinZ emerge from TikTok as youngest stars in country's Black All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. "Conspiracy theory links false claim of AT&T election audit to bombing, Fact check: Hugo Chvez's family does not own Dominion Voting Systems, Fact check: Dominion voting machines didn't delete votes from Trump, switch them to Biden, Live politics updates: Dominion says it may sue over election conspiracy theories, subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy, Cision PR Newswire archive, July 16, 2018, ", The Tennessean archives, July 23, 2004, ", News Channel 5 Nashville archives, Dec. 18, 2006, ", Email correspondence withJim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T, Email correspondence with a spokesperson for Dominion Voting Systems. The conspiracy theory has grown into a movement that is promoted by right-wing extremists. The FBI confirmed that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast. 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. So did the type of explosives used to detonate the blast. Skoglund says those include the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. New warnings of hacking risks for voting systems connected to the internet, New questions about voting machines as 2020 election approaches, Oregon officials say vote-by-mail system improves security and turnout, Manufacturers who make voting machines testify before Congress. The three largest voting manufacturing companies Election Systems &Software, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic have acknowledged they all put modems in some of their tabulators and scanners. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. The post implies that the bombing was an attempt to stop the audit and cover up voter fraud. Last week, Dominion filed its fourth defamation lawsuit, this one a $1.6 billion whopper charging that Fox News spread the bogus conspiracy claim in order to boost ratings that plummeted after. Q&A of the Day - Voting Machines Used in Florida's 2022 Elections Shasta cuts ties with Dominion amid unfounded voting fraud claims - Los Was Nashville bombing an attempt to stop audit of Dominion software? Coomer said in addition to his own information, the personal addresses of everyone from his parents and siblings to his ex-girlfriends have been posted online. Whether it's the standard online trolls, voicemails that are left almost on a daily basis, being called a traitor to this country, I can't even begin to describe what effect this has had on my life," he said. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has dismissed the claim of an election hacking and vote manipulation operation known as Hammer and Scorecard. (here). "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. 27postsays. Warner died in the blast, according to authorities. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Voting Systems in Tennessee | Tennessee Secretary of State Proposed Constitutional Amendments Voting Systems in Tennessee View list by county (.pdf) and learn more about each system using the links below. Some of the posts (here) say: Dominion voting is owned by Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus is run by Staple Street Execs. No available external evidence suggests AT&T was involved in any such audit, either. 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. False. 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. Does Joe Biden's family own Dominion Voting Systems? Nope Heres why:In the wake of theChristmas morning explosion in Nashville, Tenn., a baseless conspiracy theory startedcirculatingonlinethat claims Nashvilles downtown AT&T complex, which was damaged in the blast, had gotten a contract to conduct a "forensic audit" on Dominion Voting Systems machines. he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. Hart said that it has approximately 1,600 such tabulators in use in 11 counties in Michigan. All of these businesses were reported to be damaged in the blast (here). "What we should do is remove all of the unnecessary, hackable pathways, such as modems. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. In an interview with Rochester's ABC 13, City Blue Imagingsales manager John Mealy condemned misinformation about the tragedy and dismissed the claims again. Didi Martinez is an associate producer with the NBC News Investigative Unit. "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.. "I'm in fear for my family's safety. But none of this is true. Dominion did not respond to numerous requests from NBC News for their sales numbers. There was no evidence of a shooting, but both officers and witnesses heard a warning blare from the RV: "Evacuate now. Copyright 2023 Politifact. A team of election security experts used a Google for servers to challenge claims that voting machines do not connect to the internet and found some did. The accusation started with a conservative activist in Colorado, Joe Oltmann. "So, the explosion 'just happened . The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle owned by Warner. Dominion Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software. The company recently threatened a number of groups repeating the claims with lawsuits, including One America News Network, Newsmax and Fox News. Progressive Democrats Introduce First Bill to Tighten Rail Safety New York State Police Director of Public Information Beau Duffy told Reuters via email they were unaware of any state police investigations relating to the claims linking the paper company to ballots. In an all-caps tweet on Saturday night, Trump highlighted a report from One America News Network (OANN), a right-wing outlet, that claimed voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems. Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities, Dominion Voting Systems added. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth.. That is just inviting trouble.. Statement:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. Some have also received threatening letters. In the wake of the Christmas morning explosion in Nashville, Tenn., a baseless conspiracy theory started circulating online that claims Nashville's downtown AT&T complex, which was damaged in. Dominionwas acquired by private equity firm Staple Street Capital, co-founded by financiers Hootan Yaghoobzadeh and StephenOwens, in 2018. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". 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 . Dominion provides election equipment and software to 28 states, including many of the swing states on which Trump has focused his post-election ire. The voting conspiracy theories that have led millions of Republicans to feel as though the election was stolen from them, which are still spreading, have also led to calls for Coomer's head. the dominion voting system that was the subject of an enormous amount of controversy, is a dramatic improvement over prior forms of voting. Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. provides voting machines and tabulators. The explosion disrupted AT&T wireless and internet services, leading to widespread 911 issues in the Nashville area, The Tennessean reported. But none of this is true. The printing business took to social media to debunk the claim itself. . Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. "The FBI corralled me in Mankato, Minnesota, and took my cell phone," Lindell told the Reformer. 2023 Tennessee Secretaryof State |Web and Social Media Policies. James Murphy, a spokesperson for MetLife, confirmed the company owns the building. No one is currently working out of the building. THE FACTS: As federal officials work to piece together a motive for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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). The bomb is in this vehicle and will explode." But to draw that connection, a number of other groups are brought into the fold and it doesn't add up. Three days later, on November 6th, AT&T named William "Bill" E. Kennard Chairman of its Board of Directors. Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. The claim: Dominion Voting Systems is tied up in the Nashville bombing, based on the affected AT&T building's ownership and that the cellular company was contracted to audit Dominion's. Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . "They" Sent This Tornado (with David French) - The Bulwark Newsmax Settles Dominion Executive's Defamation Lawsuit, Apologizes Audit in Michigan County Refutes Dominion Conspiracy Theory Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. Let's start here: The man behind the Dec. 25 bombing in downtown Nashville, Tenn., died of COVID-19, according to a popular and wrong Facebook post. Immediately, Coomer knew things would blow up. The explosion in the heart of Nashville injured three people and damaged businesses including an AT&T switching center, disrupting mobile, internet and TV services across central Tennessee and parts of four other states (here). The video, which was posted by a Facebook page called Red Pill Radio on Dec. 28, shows the outline of buildings and a highway in Nashville. 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 the equipment was recently relocated to the companys building that was damaged in the blast. Voting machine company executive sues Trump allies for defamation - CNN View list by county(.pdf) and learn more about each system using the links below. We can not make our computers perfectly secure," he said. It really is. While the investigation is ongoing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast ( here , here ). "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 explosion injured three people and damaged several businesses, including the AT&T Building. How Eric Coomer Became the 'Perfect Villain' for Voting Conspiracists While federal investigators are still looking into the bombing, law enforcement officials have said Warner was responsible and died in the blast. Conspiracy theorists say the suicide bombing that rocked downtown Nashville was actually the result of a missile strike. Dominion told AFP the claim is "another bizarre lie being spread by known conspiracy theorists.". 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. Even in an election where almost all the voting was recorded on paper ballots and rigorous audits were done more than ever before, none of that helps if millions of people are working with an alternative set of facts, said Joe Kiniry, chief scientist of the open-source election technology company Free & Fair. There may not be answers to the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville anytime soon. Its crazy, the amount of misinformation that you see, Mealy said. "Bombing investigations can take years," Darrell DeBusk, an FBI spokesman based inTennessee, told The Tennessean. "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 representatives havealsodenouncedthe conspiracy theory, calling it another "bizarre lie" with "zero credibility.". In a letter obtained by NBC News sent to the EAC on Tuesday, the nonprofit public interest group Free Speech for People and the National Election Defense Coalition asked the agency to look into whether ES&S violated agency regulations by implying that DS200 voting machines with modems are EAC certified. A spokesperson for the FBI's Denver Field Office confirmed that the FBI executed the . There are currently two voting systems which are certified by the State of Florida's Division of Elections. Dominion Voting Systems may sue President Trump personally for ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. Dominion was founded in the wake of a different controversy: the failure of punch-card voting machines and their infamous hanging chads in the 2000 election.
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