The question is.. Some of the posts attempted to further link AT&T to Dominion by claiming a former owner of the AT&T building was a board member of a firm that owns Dominion. 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. The investigation of the Nashville bombing is ongoing, but the Facebook post is inaccurate and ridiculous. Our mission is to exceed the expectations of our customers, the taxpayers, by operating at the highest levels of accuracy, cost-effectiveness, and accountability in a customer-centered environment. 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.. For election systems to be online, even momentarily, presents a serious problem, according to Appel. This material may not be reproduced without permission. 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 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. "When we're in the realm of coupling disinformation from both foreign and domestic sources, and government and nongovernment sources, and none of it is really grounded in reality evidence doesn't help much," he said. ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . 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. 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. But none of this is true. Thats an interesting coincidence.. February 28, 2023, 1:26 PM. 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 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 . "So, the explosion 'just happened . 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. "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. Even though it has a blue Nashville and a blue Memphis. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. 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. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. 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. "And I probably will. 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. (Read more about, Breaking news meme generators are frequently used online to create fabricated headlines and chyrons such as this one. (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.). For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? First, QAnon. 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. A Dominion spokeswoman said other company employees have also gone to more secure locations, been threatened and been digitally stalked. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. CNN didnt report that Anthony Warner, the person authorities have identified as the bomber, died from COVID-19. These two tech experts also agree on the path forward, saying they are comforted by the fact that most Americans will vote this year on hand-marked paper ballots which are counted by machine and can be recounted by hand if the situation warrants. "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. the post reads. Warner died in the blast, according to authorities. 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). Both sit on Dominion's board. causing widespread communications outages. 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. Staple Street Capital took part in a deal with management to acquire Dominion in 2018 (here and here). The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. 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. 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. APS ASSESSMENT: False. But none of this is true. There is no evidence that suggests that the explosion was election-related. The cities of West Bend and Mequon's Dominion machine audit found one vote changed each after their hand counts. 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. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. The post, which has been shared almost 900 times, makes two claims: A building damaged in the Nashville explosion was holding Dominion Voting Systems machines set to be audited, and in New. 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. Their evidence: a grainy black-and-white video. But now, some state officials worry that the machines may pose a security risk and are pushing to have the modems removed. 2023 Tennessee Secretaryof State |Web and Social Media Policies. 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. Powell was one of the faces of the Trump. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. We should be unplugging all of these machines from the internet, Skoglund said. But the company did not account for the new voting centers, so the Williamson County. 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.". Staple Street Capital has a managing director and co-founder named Stephen Owens. We kept hearing from election officials that voting machines were never on the internet, he said. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. In 2006, Cerberus Capital acquired it, according to a 2006 News Channel 5 Nashville report. Generally speaking, the media in those locations are kinda clamoring to get unofficial results as quickly as possible., When asked if the desire for speed was at odds with accuracy and security, Burt said, its not my place to judge that.. The New York Attorney Generals office said they could not confirm nor deny any investigation. 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 . These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth.. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has dismissed the claim of an election hacking and vote manipulation operation known as Hammer and Scorecard. (here). "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. "Coincidence? The machines America votes on seem to be capturing the interest of some in Congress. The accusation started with a conservative activist in Colorado, Joe Oltmann. 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). Similar claims have already been debunked by Reuters (here). Next theory: The bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. Those modems connect to cell phone networks, which, in turn, are connected to the internet. Behind it is the notion that if voting systems are not online, hackers will have a harder time compromising them. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. There is no reason to suppose that it would be likely, or even possible, that these buildings, would be used to audit voting machines. 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 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 . Dominion Voting Systems, a company beset by dubious election fraud claims in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, said "human error" was to blame after machines in a Pennsylvania. ES&S confirmed they had sold scanners with wireless modems to at least 11 states. 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 November's election, spread by allies and pro-Trump media. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays. Owners of Dominion Voting Systems,(the company many people are accusing of voter fraud) are former executives from Cerebus," another post reads. ", 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.". AT&T not conducting voting machine audit near Nashville explosion site. View list by county(.pdf) and learn more about each system using the links below. 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. 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. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. As of Friday, a motive in the bombing remained under investigation by the FBI, the ATF and Metro Nashville police. Coomer said the first barb aimed at him came five days after the election. The Poynter Institute Menu. Skoglund said that they identified only one company among the systems they detected on line, ES&S. The location of the heavily damaged buildings seen in the photograph accompanying the post appear to show 170 to 176 2nd Avenue North in Nashville after the explosion. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. 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 . 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. Nashville's date on June 7 at GEODIS Park will feature Kelsea Ballerini and BRELAND -- and now, The Boykinz. No one is currently working out of the building. Powell is named in Coomer's suit, along with the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. 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. In August 2021, Dominion Voting Systems programmed machines for the county's upcoming elections. The conservative network has seen its ratings surge in . ( here and here ). Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays bombing, causing widespread communications outages. Even for elections nights., Appel agreed. But Skogland points to some good news. 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). Federal officials have identified the man believed to be behind the bombing, and they are working to discern a motive. The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. "The FBI corralled me in Mankato, Minnesota, and took my cell phone," Lindell told the Reformer. Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities, Dominion Voting Systems added. "Very, very interesting.". Its disgusting. The building of City Blue Imaging (www.cityblueimaging.com/), a printing company in Rochester, New York, burnt down on Christmas morning after catching fire the night before ( here , here and here ). On Christmas morning of 2020, a recreational vehicle exploded on the streets of Nashville near a building owned by AT&T that lies one block from the companys office tower. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". 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 . 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. 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. hide caption. "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. Sumit Ganguli is the CEO and Member of the Board at GAVS Technologies. Before starting Staple Street Capital, Yaghoobzadeh worked as a senior vice president for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. 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). "Anthony Warner is the bomber. https://archive.is/qqjBh Paul E. Singer-Elliott Management, aka "The Vulture", reportedly controls CNN parent, AT&T, as well as Twitter. More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. Examples can be seen here , here and here . The City of Rochester government and police did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. In an interview with Rochester's ABC 13, City Blue Imagingsales manager John Mealy condemned misinformation about the tragedy and dismissed the claims again. But he has no idea if that will ever be possible. . Breitbart, by Hannah Bleau Original Article. "I've been threatened more times than I could even count. 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. Please note the instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. Dominionwas acquired by private equity firm Staple Street Capital, co-founded by financiers Hootan Yaghoobzadeh and StephenOwens, in 2018. There is a bomb. 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. 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. City Blue Imaging Services' Facebook, Dec. 27. There was no evidence of a shooting, but both officers and witnesses heard a warning blare from the RV: "Evacuate now. The voting rights of more than 55,000 formerly incarcerated Minnesotans were restored on Friday, as Gov. 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. On Thursday night, the group performed their set at the Shed in Maryville, Tennessee, with all six of its members wearing dresses in protest of the state's newly enacted law on public drag performance. 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. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. It really is. In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. 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 West Bend clerk wrote, "The wrong marking device was used to mark the . Secretary Hargett is the chief executive officer of the Department of State with oversight of more than 300 employees. Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. Full Story. The RV was parked on Second Avenue in Nashville, outside an AT&Ttransmission building, among other businesses and residences. IE 11 is not supported. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. The services and oversight found in the Secretary of State's office reach every department and agency in state government. Donate State Editions California Florida NewsGuard, which vets news sources based on transparency and reliability standards, found recently that among the top 100 sources of news in the U.S., sources it deemed unreliable had four times as many interactions this year compared with 2019. A spokesperson for the FBI's Denver Field Office confirmed that the FBI executed the . A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. The company put the building back on the market shortly thereafter; MetLife Inc., throughsubsidiary Prefco Fourteen, now owns the building, public records show. 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. 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. Its crazy, the amount of misinformation that you see, Mealy said. 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. "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.. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. "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. The user who created the post did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. These claims are groundless. 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. So did the type of explosives used to detonate the blast. Jim Greer, Assistant Vice President of Corporate Communications at AT&T, told Reuters via email: None of the things in the post are true.. 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. According to the post, that firm ownedthe AT&T building outside of which the Christmas bombing occurred. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. Immediately, Coomer knew things would blow up. There's a third company, Clear Ballot Group which is currently under testing by the state of Florida, the official audit review of their software began May 17th, but that is not . Those networks are among the defendants Coomer is suing. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth. "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. 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. 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. There may not be answers to the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville anytime soon. The company recently threatened a number of groups repeating the claims with lawsuits, including One America News Network, Newsmax and Fox News. 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 specific steps taken would depend on the recommendation and the timeline required to make changes effectively.. The post's creator did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. 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. Fact-checkers have debunked claims that the explosion was the result of a missile strike. 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. False. The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies. Copyright 2023 Politifact. 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 . 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. A Dominion voting machine in Georgia. "I actually am in fear for my safety," Coomer said recently, speaking by video call from an undisclosed location to Colorado Public Radio. Three days later, on November 6th, AT&T named William "Bill" E. Kennard Chairman of its Board of Directors. Authorities still dont know the reason for the Christmas day bombing, but theres no evidence it was election related. Dominion was the first to snap. Kevin Monahan is a producer for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 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, which damaged an AT&T building, was tied to this audit. A post on Facebook theorized that the two disasters were connected by a plot to steal the election. Here are the facts: CLAIM: President-elect Joe Biden's sister is married to Stephen Owens, the co-founder of the private equity firm Staple Street Capital, which owns Dominion Voting Systems . The 35 systems Skoglunds team found represent a fraction of total voting systems nationwide, though he believes they only captured a portion of the systems that are or have been online. "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. The following three posts were flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. The broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. John Bazemore/AP 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.". 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.
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