DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. 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 . That's false. Singer reportedly funded the original investigation But the company did not account for the new voting centers, so the Williamson County. Speaker 13 . Dominion is a company that supplies voting machines in more than two-dozen states, including Ohio. 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. 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. There are currently two voting systems which are certified by the State of Florida's Division of Elections. 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 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. And we knew that wasn't true. 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. Thank you for supporting our journalism. That user did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment, either. Breitbart, by Hannah Bleau Original Article. A spokesperson for Dominion Voting Systems told Reuters via email: Dominion calls 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.. 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. Skoglund said that they identified only one company among the systems they detected on line, ES&S. The extent of our relationship is this: In 2009, Smartmatic licensed the use of a Dominion voting machine for use in the Philippines. 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. 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. 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. 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. Social media is home to several conspiracy theories about the explosion in Nashville on Christmas Day. A post on Facebook theorized that the two disasters were connected by a plot to steal the election. The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. Much of the voting equipment was by Dominion. Powell was one of the faces of the Trump. Even though it has a blue Nashville and a blue Memphis. ", 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.". Skoglund says those include the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. 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. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". Others add that the explosion took place as the voting machines were being moved to Nashville and provide political links as proof of a conspiracy. All of these businesses were reported to be damaged in the blast (here). While federal investigators are still looking into the bombing, law enforcement officials have said Warner was responsible and died in the blast. For Coomer, that means his life may be forever changed. (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.). Since the 2016 election, Michigan authorized $82 million dollars to upgrade its election systems. Warner died in the blast, according to authorities. It is true Kennard serves on the board of Staple Street Capital (not Staple Street execs as the posts say). This screengrab is being shared on social media without that context. 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 largest manufacturer of voting machines, ES&S, told NBC News their systems are protected by firewalls and are not on the public internet. But both Skoglund and Andrew Appel, a Princeton computer science professor and expert on elections, said such firewalls can and have been breached. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. Some just say AT&T had a contract to conduct a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems. Joe Bidens Brother in Law, Steven Owens, is the cofounder of Staple Street Execs along with William Kennard (mentioned above).. 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. His top goal right now is pretty simple hoping one day it'll be safe to return home. EDITORS NOTE (Feb. 7, 2020, 11:15 p.m.): A previous version of this article stated that Kevin Skoglund and his team had found election systems using ES&S scanners with wireless modems connected to the internet in 11 states and the District of Columbia. 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. Early Christmas morning, police in Nashville came across an RV parked on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building, whileresponding to reports of shots fired in the area, Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Don Aaron told The Tennessean that day. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. Last fall, when ES&S gave NBC News an exclusive tour at its headquarters in Omaha, Neb., Chief Executive Officer Tom Burt defended using modems when asked about the Sprint and Verizon modems seen in ES&S's testing area. "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. On January 8, it filed a defamation suit against pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, seeking $1.3 billion in damages. ", Below the headline is an image that looks like its a picture from a CNN broadcast, with chyron that announces the Nashville bomber "died from COVID.". More:Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. There is no evidence to support the claim that City Blue Imaging, a longtime Rochester, New York, printing business that went up in flames on Christmas Eve, was under investigation for printing fake ballots. 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. Note that aspects of Tennessee law may differ with what is seen on the videos. Dominion told AFP the claim is "another bizarre lie being spread by known conspiracy theorists.". 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. Dominion has been the target of a wide range of false posts since American voters chose Joe Biden as their next president, despite no evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities in the 2020 election. The question is.. The ATT building in Nashville that was affected by the bomb was owned by Cerebus (sic) Capital. 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 ). On Christmas Day, an RV in Nashville, Tennessee, exploded, severelydamaging many of the buildings around it in the explosion. 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. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which provides cybersecurity frameworks for state and local governments and other organizations, recommends that voting systems should not have wireless network connections. But that is an overstatement, according to a team of 10 independent cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994 as a creative outgrowth of his wide-ranging interests in a variety of subjects (particularly folklo read more. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. 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 . ES&S has repeatedly advertised its DS200 with internal modem a critical component to ES&Ss voting systems as being EAC certified when, in fact, it is not, the letter said. ", Both Snopes and AFP reached the same conclusion. This references the claim that supercomputer Hammer and software program Scorecard were used to change votes in Bidens favor in the 2020 Presidential election. "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.. As of now, the person of interest identified by the FBI in connection with the explosion, Anthony Quinn Warner, is believed to have been "paranoid about 5G technology" (another frequent subject of conspiracy theories) rather than possessing any election-related motive. "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. 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). "It does appear that the intent was more destruction than death," said David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, inan interview on NBC's "Today." Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. Some of that money was spent on tabulators with wireless modems. Rumors about an investigation into the company do not even appear in web searches until after the fire. James Murphy, a spokesperson for MetLife, confirmed the company owns the building. All those. The following three posts were flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Previous claims had said the bomb had targeted the AT&T building and that Dominion Voting Systems machines were being audited there(here). 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. It also claims the AT&T building that was affected by the bomb is where those machines were being stored. AT&T not conducting voting machine audit near Nashville explosion site. Similar claims have been shared in hundreds of public posts, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. Kevin Skoglund, senior technical advisor at the National Election Defense Coalition. Across the country on Christmas Eve, a printing press company in New York burned to the ground. Trump has repeatedly made comments about Dominion's voting machines and retweeted reports perpetuating the conspiracy theory, calling the company's voting machines "a disaster all over the . A spokesperson for the FBI's Denver Field Office confirmed that the FBI executed the . 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 companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. And thats not what were about. The Poynter Institute Menu. Federal officials have identified the man believed to be behind the bombing, and they are working to discern a motive. 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. 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. 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 City of Rochester government and police did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. 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. John Bazemore/AP Even if an election is run perfectly, it doesn't matter to a sizable portion of the public who believes it was unfair. In addition to Coomer's lawsuit, Dominion is threatening legal action against Sidney Powell, who has been among the loudest voices pushing conspiracy theories on behalf of the Trump campaign. "The FBI corralled me in Mankato, Minnesota, and took my cell phone," Lindell told the Reformer. So did the type of explosives used to detonate the blast. Now the process of counting these votes . He also serves on 16 boards and commissions, on two of which he is the presiding member. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. However, the firm cited in that version of the claim Cerberus Capital Management doesnt own Dominion nor is it connected to Staple Street Capital, whichacquired Dominion in 2018. 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. 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. the post reads. Didi Martinez is an associate producer with the NBC News Investigative Unit. Cerberus Capital Management, the firm named in the posts, does not own Dominion, nor does it own the company that does own Dominion, Staple Street Capital. With unfounded fraud claims swirling, red California county dumps Dominion voting machines. "The minute I saw it, it left a big pit in my stomach," he said. TheBatman-shaped skyscraper was first owned by Prefco XIV, a limited partnership ofPitney Bowes, which bought the building in 1994 for $100.8 million, according to the building's deed. The machines America votes on seem to be capturing the interest of some in Congress. 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. Next theory: The bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. Statement:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. And so we set out to try and find the voting machines to see if we could find them on the internet, and especially the back-end systems that voting machines in the precinct were connecting to to report their results.. 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 . The complicated theory began circulating soon after an RV exploded in downtown Nashville. 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.. So we will clear it up: Its fake. Select an Infowars smear of Dominion Voting Systems. Theres a small percentage of jurisdictions in the country -- a lot of them are in Florida -- who have decided they want to modem unofficial results to the election office, he said. "I actually am in fear for my safety," Coomer said recently, speaking by video call from an undisclosed location to Colorado Public Radio. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) owns Dominion. The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. 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. 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. First, QAnon. 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. "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. Full Story. The user who created the post did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. Please note t he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. All rights reserved. Did City Blue Imaging Print Voting Ballots, Then Burn Down? Dominion did not respond to numerous requests from NBC News for their sales numbers. 2023 www.statesman.com. These claims are groundless. The West Bend clerk wrote, "The wrong marking device was used to mark the . "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. Staple Street Capital has a managing director and co-founder named Stephen Owens. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. "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?," one from Dec. 26 reads. We therefore again respectfully request that EAC investigate and take action to correct this serious issue., Once you add that modem, you are de-certifying it, Skoglund said. ", Dominion Voting Systems Employee Sues Trump Campaign And Allies, Alleging Defamation, Former Election Security Official Says It Will Take Years To Undo Disinformation, Barr Says No Need For Special Counsel For Hunter Biden Probe, Election Fraud Claims. The bomb is in this vehicle and will explode." Both Dominion Voting Systems andAT&T confirmed the communications company was not contracted to audit Dominion's machines. The FBI confirmed that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast. 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. Immediately, Coomer knew things would blow up. 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. It's just the latest example of how people's lives are being upended and potentially ruined by the unprecedented flurry of disinformation this year. IE 11 is not supported. 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. Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? 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. False. It really is. Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday morning filed three $1.6 billion defamation lawsuits against two pro-Trump media networks and an outspoken Trump ally, the latest in a string of suits from the . for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. If you have super majorities, Tennessee is like an R plus twenty state. Facebook post:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. On Dec. 27, U.S. Attorney Don Cochran said the explosion appeared to be a suicide bombing carried out by a Warner. We rate thisclaim as FALSE, because it wasn't supported by our research. Sumit Ganguli is the CEO and Member of the Board at GAVS Technologies. That agreement is long over, and they no longer have the . "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. 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. Rating: False About this rating On Christmas. Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . Some have also received threatening letters. 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. 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. 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. Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine manufacturer founded in Canada, made equipment that is used in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. 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. He was present when the bomb went off, and he perished in the bombing," Cochran said. The New York Attorney Generals office said they could not confirm nor deny any investigation. 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. According to Dominion, vote-switching and software malfunction allegations are "all baseless claims" that "have been debunked by election officials, subject matter experts and third-party fact. 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. Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. Some on social media have speculated that AT&T was contracted to audit Dominion Voting Systems, an election technology supplier that has become central to false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. why?" The conspiracy theory has grown into a movement that is promoted by right-wing extremists. APS ASSESSMENT: False. 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. 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. Secretary Hargett is the chief executive officer of the Department of State with oversight of more than 300 employees. It is no longer federally certified. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. The company put the building back on the market shortly thereafter; MetLife Inc., throughsubsidiary Prefco Fourteen, now owns the building, public records show. Some of Trump's supporters have focused on Coomer as the supposed evil mastermind. Last month Dominion filed a $1.6bn defamation suit against Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, accusing it of trying to boost ratings by amplifying the bogus claims. The social media post states "AT&T got contract [sic] to do forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and those machines were being moved to Nashville this past week" before the bombing. 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? Even for elections nights., Appel agreed. Social media users have been sharing content online that claims AT&T had a contract to do a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems machines and that the Dec. 25 explosion in Nashville,. Both sit on Dominion's board. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. 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. "Some of the threats that I've gotten have made very clear that these actors are in it for the long haul. Modems in voting machines are a bad idea, said Appel. February 28, 2023, 1:26 PM. However, both AT&T and Dominion have disclaimed the notion that the former company was engaged in audit of the latter, or that any Dominion-related systems were being moved to Nashville in preparation for a "forensic audit" (by anyone). More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. the dominion voting system that was the subject of an enormous amount of controversy, is a dramatic improvement over prior forms of voting.

Obituaries Lexington, Sc, Places Like Ripley's Believe It Or Not, How Many Children Did Roy Orbison Have, Articles D