"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. "That's all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation with all of our partners. Staple Street Capital has a managing director and co-founder named Stephen Owens. "Bombing investigations can take years," Darrell DeBusk, an FBI spokesman based inTennessee, told The Tennessean. Didi Martinez is an associate producer with the NBC News Investigative Unit. Please note t he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. 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.. 4 min read. "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. ", More:Nashville police bodycam footage shows raw moments of chaos before and after explosion. In 2020, the controversy revolves around Dominion's voting machines, sparked by an erroneous result out of a Michigan county that's been blamed on human error, allegations of rigged Dominion software in Georgia and the fact Texas rejected Dominion's system due to security concerns. Were focusing on moving forward.. The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. The City of Rochester government and police did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. 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 post implies that the bombing was an attempt to stop the audit and cover up voter fraud. 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. 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.. There is a bomb. There can still be security holes that allow hackers to get into the phone network.. 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 ). The explosion in the heart of Nashville injured three people and damaged businesses including an AT&T switching center, disrupting mobile, internet and TV services across central Tennessee and parts of four other states (here). 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. 2023 Tennessee Secretaryof State |Web and Social Media Policies. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle that Warner owned. 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 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.. Dominion was the first to snap. The following three posts were flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. A spokesperson for the FBI's Denver Field Office confirmed that the FBI executed the . Dominion told AFP the claim is "another bizarre lie being spread by known conspiracy theorists.". Reuters Fact Check previously debunked this claim here . The voting rights of more than 55,000 formerly incarcerated Minnesotans were restored on Friday, as Gov. Statement:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. Before starting Staple Street Capital, Yaghoobzadeh worked as a senior vice president for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. He was present when the bomb went off, and he perished in the bombing," Cochran said. 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. 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. 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. ", 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.". With unfounded fraud claims swirling, red California county dumps Dominion voting machines. 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. On Tuesday, Coomer sued the Trump campaign and a number of allies, alleging defamation. 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. A Dominion voting machine in Georgia. The broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. Some have also received threatening letters. The AT&T building in downtown Nashville. Singer reportedly funded the original investigation 2023 www.statesman.com. These are real, tangible things coming out of these baseless accusations.". Breitbart, by Hannah Bleau Original Article. But companies that specialize in the subject said it is getting exponentially worse. Much of the voting equipment was by Dominion. Now the process of counting these votes . A Dominion spokeswoman said other company employees have also gone to more secure locations, been threatened and been digitally stalked. By the time the news conference occurred on Nov. 19, Mr. Trump's campaign had already prepared an internal memo on many of the outlandish claims about the company, Dominion Voting Systems, and. Behind it is the notion that if voting systems are not online, hackers will have a harder time compromising them. 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. On Nov. 21, a group protested in front of Dominion's Denver headquarters, waving American flags and signs saying "fraud equals arrests." 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. 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. Hart said that it has approximately 1,600 such tabulators in use in 11 counties in Michigan. 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. Let's start here: The man behind the Dec. 25 bombing in downtown Nashville, Tenn., died of COVID-19, according to a popular and wrong Facebook post. 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. Facebook post:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. Heres why:In the wake of theChristmas morning explosion in Nashville, Tenn., a baseless conspiracy theory startedcirculatingonlinethat claims Nashvilles downtown AT&T complex, which was damaged in the blast, had gotten a contract to conduct a "forensic audit" on Dominion Voting Systems machines. ", 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. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. 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? 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. According to the post, that firm ownedthe AT&T building outside of which the Christmas bombing occurred. 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. The same Facebook post also said Dominion voting machines were being audited in the AT&T building that was destroyed by a bomb in Nashville. His top goal right now is pretty simple hoping one day it'll be safe to return home. The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies. "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. . This is bogus. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle owned by Warner. Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities, Dominion Voting Systems added. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. The AT&T building the posts likely refer to was not the one outside which the bomb exploded on Christmas morning. 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. 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. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) owns Dominion. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. 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. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. AT&T got a contract to do forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and those machines were being moved to Nashville this past week, read one post. 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 . The complicated theory began circulating soon after an RV exploded in downtown Nashville. 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. "I've been threatened more times than I could even count. 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. 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). 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 . Read more about our fact-checking work here . Jim Greer, Assistant Vice President of Corporate Communications at AT&T, told Reuters via email: None of the things in the post are true.. 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. Immediately, Coomer knew things would blow up. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. "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. 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 . That's false. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. 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. View list by county(.pdf) and learn more about each system using the links below. Sumit Ganguli is the CEO and Member of the Board at GAVS Technologies. (Photo by James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images). Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . In the wake of the Christmas morning explosion in Nashville, Tenn., a baseless conspiracy theory started circulating online that claims Nashville's downtown AT&T complex, which was damaged in. Social media posts from the event tagged the far-right group the Proud Boys. 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. More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. Even for elections nights., Appel agreed. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". 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. 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. We kept hearing from election officials that voting machines were never on the internet, he said. The Nashville outlet found . He also serves on 16 boards and commissions, on two of which he is the presiding member. "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. 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. That is just inviting trouble.. 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. February 28, 2023, 1:26 PM. Please note the instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. The post also mentions the Kraken or supercomputer and says that the cooling system for this computer was located in the AT&T building. The reason? 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. That team of election security experts say that last summer, they discovered some systems are, in fact, online. 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. 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,. 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. Both Dominion Voting Systems andAT&T confirmed the communications company was not contracted to audit Dominion's machines. More:Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims. 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. Reuters debunked this claim here . It is true Kennard serves on the board of Staple Street Capital (not Staple Street execs as the posts say). 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. Powell was one of the faces of the Trump. 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. Conspiracy theorists say the suicide bombing that rocked downtown Nashville was actually the result of a missile strike. "What we should do is remove all of the unnecessary, hackable pathways, such as modems. 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. Serious political tensions and fears of COVID-19 have led record-breaking numbers of Americans to vote early this year, either by mail or in person. Since the 2016 election, Michigan authorized $82 million dollars to upgrade its election systems. There are currently two voting systems which are certified by the State of Florida's Division of Elections. Smartmatic, a competitor of Dominion's that has also been the subject of wild rumors, has demanded that numerous news networks take back their allegations against it. Cerberus Capital previously owned the AT&T Building, onceknownas the BellSouth Building,where the company has operated its Tennessee headquarters since the building's erection in 1994. The Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying. Lindell told the Minnesota Reformer, that he and a friend were on their way home from duck hunting in Iowa and were in the Hardee's drive through when three cars with four FBI agents surrounded his vehicle. The services and oversight found in the Secretary of State's office reach every department and agency in state government. "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. All of these businesses were reported to be damaged in the blast (here). But the company did not account for the new voting centers, so the Williamson County. Hismotive is unknown. AT&T not conducting voting machine audit near Nashville explosion site. Representatives for companies involved say there is no truth to the claims. 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 . The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. The RV was parked on Second Avenue in Nashville, outside an AT&Ttransmission building, among other businesses and residences. 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. "So, the explosion 'just happened . These claims are groundless. 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. Dominionwas acquired by private equity firm Staple Street Capital, co-founded by financiers Hootan Yaghoobzadeh and StephenOwens, in 2018. "I actually am in fear for my safety," Coomer said recently, speaking by video call from an undisclosed location to Colorado Public Radio. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays. Dominion Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software. 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. All rights reserved. A Michigan judge ordered the release Monday of an independent forensic audit report of the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Antrim County, which flipped from a win for Democrat Joe Biden to President Donald Trump after a glitch was discovered and corrected. And I don't know that all these jurisdictions are aware of that because ES&S is advertising otherwise.. The posts all tie AT&T with Dominion, holding the explosion to be alleged proof of conspiracy. Speaker 13 . NBC News asked the two other major manufacturers how many of their tabulators with modems were currently in use. Three days later, on November 6th, AT&T named William "Bill" E. Kennard Chairman of its Board of Directors. A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . 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. Select an Infowars smear of Dominion Voting Systems. Even if an election is run perfectly, it doesn't matter to a sizable portion of the public who believes it was unfair. All those. 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. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. "Coincidence? 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. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. While the investigation is ongoing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast ( here , here ). 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. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Examples can be seen here , here and here . 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. Kevin Monahan is a producer for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 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 . This weekend, both Fox Business Network and Newsmax appeared to answer those demands with segments debunking some claims. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. 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 . It wasn't meant to kill people, but to destroy a building. US Elections were November 3, 2020. Modems in voting machines are a bad idea, said Appel.
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