Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems, Nashville police bodycam footage shows raw moments of chaos before and after explosion, Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester, "Nashville bombing: What we know about downtown explosion on Christmas morning, FBI Memphis Special Agent in Charge Announces Identity of Remains Discovered in Nashville Explosion Site; Multi-Agency Investigation Continues, FBI identifies suspect in Nashville bombing, After devastating fire, City Blue Imaging looks toward future. The post provides no links to evidence for their allegations. 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. Owners of Dominion Voting Systems,(the company many people are accusing of voter fraud) are former executives from Cerebus," another post reads. "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. Kevin Skoglund, senior technical advisor at the National Election Defense Coalition. 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. 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. 4 min read. The reason? "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.. 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. 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. So did the type of explosives used to detonate the blast. Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. While Kennard served at the FCC and as EU ambassador and he joined AT&Ts board of directors as Chairman in Nov. 2020 (here), Greer confirmed Kennard is not the former owner of the AT&T building that was destroyed in Nashville, as the posts claim. The conspiracy theory has grown into a movement that is promoted by right-wing extremists. 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. Recently, however, there are signs that elections companies, like some election officials, are pushing back against the false accusations. Dominionwas acquired by private equity firm Staple Street Capital, co-founded by financiers Hootan Yaghoobzadeh and StephenOwens, in 2018. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth.. "Some of the threats that I've gotten have made very clear that these actors are in it for the long haul. And I don't know that all these jurisdictions are aware of that because ES&S is advertising otherwise.. Modems in voting machines are a bad idea, said Appel. 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.. why?" Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. ( here and here ). 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. "And I probably will. 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. Staple Street Capital has a managing director and co-founder named Stephen Owens. Rumors about an investigation into the company do not even appear in web searches until after the fire. causing widespread communications outages. False. The investigation of the Nashville bombing is ongoing, but the Facebook post is inaccurate and ridiculous. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has promised for months since the 2020 election that he had obtained Dominion, Smartmatic and ES&S voting machines, and they would be on full. 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. Three days later, on November 6th, AT&T named William "Bill" E. Kennard Chairman of its Board of Directors. The state of Michigan is currently grappling with this issue. 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. But now, some state officials worry that the machines may pose a security risk and are pushing to have the modems removed. Note that aspects of Tennessee law may differ with what is seen on the videos. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. No one is currently working out of the building. The bomb squad was en route. The posts all tie AT&T with Dominion, holding the explosion to be alleged proof of conspiracy. 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. ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. An executive for a voting machine company that has been the target of conspiracy theories in the aftermath of Donald Trump's 2020 election loss and been baselessly accused of swinging the. There is a bomb. Some of the posts (here) say: Dominion voting is owned by Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus is run by Staple Street Execs. Donald Trump went after media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his network Fox News in rants on Truth Social where he once again pushed the baseless and debunked claim that the . There is no evidence that the New York printing company whose building burnt down on Christmas Day was under investigation for printing false ballots. The ATT building in Nashville that was affected by the bomb was owned by Cerebus (sic) Capital. 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. The conservative network has seen its ratings surge in . "To the misinformed people on @Twitter and @instagram #cityblueimaging does not print #ballots, does not do work for #Phoenixgraphics and was never owned by the owner of #phoenixgraphics," the company wrote on its Facebook page on Dec. 27. Did City Blue Imaging Print Voting Ballots, Then Burn Down? But Skogland points to some good news. This screengrab is being shared on social media without that context. Both Dominion Voting Systems andAT&T confirmed the communications company was not contracted to audit Dominion's machines. 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. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. 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. 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. Across the country on Christmas Eve, a printing press company in New York burned to the ground. 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. 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. (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.). "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. Select an Infowars smear of Dominion Voting Systems. 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.. Fact-checkers have debunked claims that the explosion was the result of a missile strike. 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. That building is located at 333 Commerce St., roughly a quarter mile from where the bomb went off. 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. The report claims the results of the election in . Texas country-punk band Vandoliers are standing in solidarity with drag performers and the LGBTQ+ community. 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. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. The services and oversight found in the Secretary of State's office reach every department and agency in state government. 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). It was an assurance designed to bolster public confidence in the way America votes: Voting machines are not connected to the internet.. That's 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. The post also mentions the Kraken or supercomputer and says that the cooling system for this computer was located in the AT&T building. He also serves on the boards of Ford Motor Company, MetLife and Duke Energy Corporation (here). Facebook post:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. 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. The post reads: In Nashville 2 days ago an RV pulled up to a building and over a loud speaker announced to clear the area..the RV then blew up taking half a building with it..oh, minor detail - inside that building were the Dominion voting machines being audited. While the post does not specify which building they believed the machines were held in, a Dominion Voting Systems spokesperson said by email that none of their machines were anywhere in the area of the explosion or were being audited in Nashville that day. No available external evidence suggests AT&T was involved in any such audit, either. 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 . The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has dismissed the claim of an election hacking and vote manipulation operation known as Hammer and Scorecard. (here). Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine manufacturer founded in Canada, made equipment that is used in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. 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.". 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. Then, a plume of smoke rises behind three light poles. Dominion Lawsuit Showcases Paul Ryan's Influence over Fox News Channel's Editorial Control. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. City Blue Imaging Services' Facebook, Dec. 27. 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. But none of this is true. 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 Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying. for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. And thats not what were about. Its crazy, the amount of misinformation that you see, Mealy said. 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 House Committee on Administration held a congressional hearing yesterday which was the first time the heads of the three major vendors, representing at least 80 percent of U.S. voting machines, appeared together for questioning. "Bombing investigations can take years," Darrell DeBusk, an FBI spokesman based inTennessee, told The Tennessean. Yet internet sleuths are searching for their own answers, some looking atthin ties toconspiracy theories about the 2020 election as evidence of a broader plot. A Dec. 14 Facebook video, viewed more than 23,000 times, claimed in its caption that "Trump WON The Election NEW Evidence Shows" because "a forensics report done on Dominion voting machines . Please note t he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. But the company did not account for the new voting centers, so the Williamson County. 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. A Dominion spokeswoman said other company employees have also gone to more secure locations, been threatened and been digitally stalked. Full Story. Bogus conspiracy theory spreading online claims the Nashville bombing was an attempt to cover up voter fraud. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle owned by Warner. Newsmax TV aired a stunning fact-check on Monday of claims made on the network about voting companies used in the 2020 presidential election. 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. Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . For election systems to be online, even momentarily, presents a serious problem, according to Appel. Some of the posts (here) try connect the explosion to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama by claiming that William Kennard, Obamas EU ambassador and Clintons FCC chair, is on AT&Ts board and owns the Nashville AT&T building that was destroyed in the blast. 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Thats an interesting coincidence.. If you have super majorities, Tennessee is like an R plus twenty state. 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. So we will clear it up: Its fake. 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. The coalition says it is no longer certain that the number of states is correct, so the figure has been removed from the article. "I've been threatened more times than I could even count. 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).
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