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 ). why?" Reuters debunked this claim here . 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.. 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. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. 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. "I'm in fear for my family's safety. According to the post, that firm ownedthe AT&T building outside of which the Christmas bombing occurred. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. Some users seemed to recognize the story as fake, but others didnt. Others are not so sure, and the state has set up an advisory committee. 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.. Next theory: The bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. Owens, the other co-founder of Staple Street Capital,did not work for Cerberus, despite the post's claim. Videos from law enforcement officials and local businesses show that the explosion occurred on 2nd Avenue North in downtown Nashville. Earlier this week, Skoglund showed NBC three election systems were still online even after officials had been told they were vulnerable. 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 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. He is focused on New Technologies around AI led Predictive Analytics, Smart Machines, IT Process Automation etc.. through . Dominion Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software. City Blue Imaging Services' Facebook, Dec. 27. 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. That is just inviting trouble.. The services and oversight found in the Secretary of State's office reach every department and agency in state government. He also serves on the boards of Ford Motor Company, MetLife and Duke Energy Corporation (here). 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). "Bombing investigations can take years," Darrell DeBusk, an FBI spokesman based inTennessee, told The Tennessean. There is no evidence that suggests that the explosion was election-related. 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. Read more about our fact-checking work here . Critics also argue ES&S has mislead jurisdictions into thinking their DS200 tabulators with modems are certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a claim they say is grounds for an investigation. Across the country on Christmas Eve, a printing press company in New York burned to the ground. CNN didnt report that Anthony Warner, the person authorities have identified as the bomber, died from COVID-19. ES&S confirmed they had sold scanners with wireless modems to at least 11 states. It is true Kennard serves on the board of Staple Street Capital (not Staple Street execs as the posts say). But none of this is true. 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 post on Facebook theorized that the two disasters were connected by a plot to steal the election. The broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T, told USA TODAY the claims are "not true. That agreement is long over, and they no longer have the . ", 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.". 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 posts all tie AT&T with Dominion, holding the explosion to be alleged proof of conspiracy. 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. Staple Street Capital has a managing director and co-founder named Stephen Owens. 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. We can not make our computers perfectly secure," he said. Dominion Voting Systems lost a sale of more than 1,400 new machines on Wednesday after commissioners for Stark County, Ohio, voted down the purchase against a recommendation from the. The printing business took to social media to debunk the claim itself. Hart said that it has approximately 1,600 such tabulators in use in 11 counties in Michigan. 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. Note that aspects of Tennessee law may differ with what is seen on the videos. Similar claims have been shared in hundreds of public posts, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. AT&T and Verizon and so on try and protect as best they can the security of their phone network from the rest of the internet, but its still part of the internet, Appel explained. The machines America votes on seem to be capturing the interest of some in Congress. 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. 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. 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. All rights reserved. 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? 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. On Christmas Day, an RV in Nashville, Tennessee, exploded, severelydamaging many of the buildings around it in the explosion. The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. https://archive.is/qqjBh Paul E. Singer-Elliott Management, aka "The Vulture", reportedly controls CNN parent, AT&T, as well as Twitter. 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. The user who created the post did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. There is no reason to suppose that it would be likely, or even possible, that these buildings, would be used to audit voting machines. 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. The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies. Skoglund said that they identified only one company among the systems they detected on line, ES&S. 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 . . The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. The investigation of the Nashville bombing is ongoing, but the Facebook post is inaccurate and ridiculous. The post provides no links to evidence for their allegations. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays bombing, causing widespread communications outages. 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 . On January 8, it filed a defamation suit against pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, seeking $1.3 billion in damages. Kevin Skoglund, senior technical advisor at the National Election Defense Coalition. 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. 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. We should not connect our voting machines directly to the computer networks. This material may not be reproduced without permission. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. APS 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. AT&T not conducting voting machine audit near Nashville explosion site. 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. Thats an interesting coincidence., Some posts read: 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. Dominion Voting Systems previously sent OAN letters threatening to sue, accusing the network of spreading the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that the election-technology company manipulated. Joe Bidens Brother in Law, Steven Owens, is the cofounder of Staple Street Execs along with William Kennard (mentioned above).. Oltmann claimed that Coomer said with a laugh on the call that he would make sure Trump didn't win the election. While William Kennard serves on Staple Street Capitals board, he is not one of the companys co-founders as these posts claim (here). ", 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. 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. A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . All those. More:Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. Texas country-punk band Vandoliers are standing in solidarity with drag performers and the LGBTQ+ community. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. There are currently two voting systems which are certified by the State of Florida's Division of Elections. For Coomer, that means his life may be forever changed. Facebook post:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. He believes there is time to make real change before the 2020 election. 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. We should be unplugging all of these machines from the internet, Skoglund said. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. There is a bomb. Dominion provides election equipment and software to 28 states, including many of the swing states on which Trump has focused his post-election ire. Even if an election is run perfectly, it doesn't matter to a sizable portion of the public who believes it was unfair. The RV was parked on Second Avenue in Nashville, outside an AT&Ttransmission building, among other businesses and residences. Dominion was the first to snap. "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." 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. No one is currently working out of the building. The AT&T building the posts likely refer to was not the one outside which the bomb exploded on Christmas morning. 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. 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 wishes are that I forever have to look over my shoulder," Coomer said. Three days later, on November 6th, AT&T named William "Bill" E. Kennard Chairman of its Board of Directors. Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, which sells electronic voting hardware and software, is suing both Fox News Network and parent company Fox Corp. for defamation. But companies that specialize in the subject said it is getting exponentially worse. One theory shared thousands of times on Facebook over the weekend tries to connect the explosion to voting machines used in the Nov. 3 election. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. All rights reserved. Now the process of counting these votes . "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. Nashville's date on June 7 at GEODIS Park will feature Kelsea Ballerini and BRELAND -- and now, The Boykinz. 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. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536. The AT&T building in downtown Nashville. 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. 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. . 2023 Tennessee Secretaryof State |Web and Social Media Policies. By Helen Coster and Jack Queen (Reuters) -A new filing from Dominion Voting Systems became public on Monday, as an April trial approaches in the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by the voting technology company against Fox News over the U.S. cable news giant's coverage of the 2020 presidential election. 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. 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. And I don't know that all these jurisdictions are aware of that because ES&S is advertising otherwise.. There is no evidence that the AT&T switching center damaged by the explosion (here) housed a supercomputer being used to alter the elections outcome. The complicated theory began circulating soon after an RV exploded in downtown Nashville. 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. The post, which has been shared almost 900 times,makes two claims:A buildingdamaged in the Nashville explosion was holding Dominion Voting Systems machines set to be audited, and in New York, the company that burned was under investigation for printing and shipping fake ballots to Pennsylvania. The 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. 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. False. There is no evidence to support the claim that the Nashville bombing or City Blue Imaging's fire were connected to election malfeasance, so we rate this claim FALSE. "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. The Poynter Institute Menu. "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. The New York Attorney Generals office said they could not confirm nor deny any investigation. 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. In . 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 company recently threatened a number of groups repeating the claims with lawsuits, including One America News Network, Newsmax and Fox News. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". 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. Breitbart, by Hannah Bleau Original Article. 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. 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 . You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Speaker 13 . 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. With the 2020 presidential election only ten months away, Appel and Skoglund believe all modems can and should be removed from election systems. And then run the ballots through the machine a few times. "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. Behind it is the notion that if voting systems are not online, hackers will have a harder time compromising them. 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 . Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . 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. 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. . NBC News asked the two other major manufacturers how many of their tabulators with modems were currently in use. 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. 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 . Both sit on Dominion's board. James Murphy, a spokesperson for MetLife, confirmed the company owns the building. 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 ). 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. Now, the alleged Dominion Voting Systems tie. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle that Warner owned. 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. 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). The City of Rochester government and police did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. 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. As of Friday, a motive in the bombing remained under investigation by the FBI, the ATF and Metro Nashville police. 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. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. In 2006, Cerberus Capital acquired it, according to a 2006 News Channel 5 Nashville report. Rating: False About this rating On Christmas. More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. More on Dominion:Fact check: Viral photo shows fake logo and slogan for Dominion Voting Systems. If you have super majorities, Tennessee is like an R plus twenty state. Before starting Staple Street Capital, Yaghoobzadeh worked as a senior vice president for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. 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. It was an assurance designed to bolster public confidence in the way America votes: Voting machines are not connected to the internet.. 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. 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.". "Anthony Warner is the bomber. In a Dominion-themed segment, an Infowars host speaking during a November Washington, D.C., rally presaged the January 6 violence by hyping the . 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. 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. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. 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.

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