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Facebook post:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. 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. All rights reserved. But none of this is true. But the company did not account for the new voting centers, so the Williamson County. Note that aspects of Tennessee law may differ with what is seen on the videos. 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 . "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. 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. 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. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. Thank you for supporting our journalism. 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. 2023 Tennessee Secretaryof State |Web and Social Media Policies. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. The post also mentions the Kraken or supercomputer and says that the cooling system for this computer was located in the AT&T building. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. 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. Before starting Staple Street Capital, Yaghoobzadeh worked as a senior vice president for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. And we knew that wasn't true. https://archive.is/qqjBh Paul E. Singer-Elliott Management, aka "The Vulture", reportedly controls CNN parent, AT&T, as well as Twitter. The West Bend clerk wrote, "The wrong marking device was used to mark the . 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. Reuters Fact Check previously debunked this claim here . It's the first . Dominionwas acquired by private equity firm Staple Street Capital, co-founded by financiers Hootan Yaghoobzadeh and StephenOwens, in 2018. A Dominion voting machine in Georgia. Previous claims had said the bomb had targeted the AT&T building and that Dominion Voting Systems machines were being audited there(here). On January 8, it filed a defamation suit against pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, seeking $1.3 billion in damages. The posts all tie AT&T with Dominion, holding the explosion to be alleged proof of conspiracy. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. Hismotive is unknown. In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. 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. Select an Infowars smear of Dominion Voting Systems. 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. With the 2020 presidential election only ten months away, Appel and Skoglund believe all modems can and should be removed from election systems. 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). Kevin Monahan is a producer for the NBC News Investigative Unit. The cities of West Bend and Mequon's Dominion machine audit found one vote changed each after their hand counts. City Blue Imaging Services' Facebook, Dec. 27. Rating: False About this rating On Christmas. 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. However, there are no news reports available online that mention that the business was involved with an investigation related to the election, and Google searches for any mention of the company and an investigation into ballot fraud from the start of September to the date of the fire do not reveal even online rumors to that effect circulating before the fire broke out (here), The companys Facebook page has addressed rumors that have spread since the fire, saying: To the misinformed people on @Twitter and @instagram #cityblueimaging does not print #ballots (here). It's just the latest example of how people's lives are being upended and potentially ruined by the unprecedented flurry of disinformation this year. There is no evidence that suggests that the explosion was election-related. 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. 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 coalition says it is no longer certain that the number of states is correct, so the figure has been removed from the article. Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. First, QAnon. "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 Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has dismissed the claim of an election hacking and vote manipulation operation known as Hammer and Scorecard. (here). Social media posts from the event tagged the far-right group the Proud Boys. No one is currently working out of the building. We found over 35 [voting systems] had been left online and were still continuing to find more, Kevin Skoglund, a senior technical advisor at the election security advocacy group National Election Defense Coalition, told NBC News. Their evidence: a grainy black-and-white video. "What we should do is remove all of the unnecessary, hackable pathways, such as modems. The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies. Much of the voting equipment was by Dominion. Since the 2016 election, Michigan authorized $82 million dollars to upgrade its election systems. 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. 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 P, Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims, Neighbor recalls warning, countdown before Nashville explosion, Fact check: Viral photo shows fake logo and slogan for Dominion Voting Systems, Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems, Nashville officials resolved to find bombing suspects, learn motive behind explosion, "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, AT&T outage Sunday updates: 'Progress continues' in restoring service after Nashville bombing, Dominion Voting Systems Acquired by its Management Team and Staple Street Capital. The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. The bomb is in this vehicle and will explode." 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. Law enforcement authorities have suggested that Warner may have been paranoid about 5G technology, a QAnon-related conspiracy theory that makes an array of unproven claims including that it helps spread COVID-19 and is used as a spying tool by the government. Dominion Voting Systems 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 . That team of election security experts say that last summer, they discovered some systems are, in fact, online. 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. Spokespeople for both AT&T and Dominion told USA TODAY that AT&T was not contracted to audit Dominion voting machines, and no Dominion voting machines were being held in the AT&T building outside of which the RV exploded. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. 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 report claims the results of the election in . 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. Tre Hargett was elected by the Tennessee General Assembly to serve as Tennessees 37th secretary of state in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, 2017, and 2021. Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine manufacturer founded in Canada, made equipment that is used in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". He was present when the bomb went off, and he perished in the bombing," Cochran said. 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. Shortly afterwards, social media users began circulating variants of a conspiracy theory holding that AT&T had been engaged to undertake a "forensic audit of Dominion voting machines," the latter of which were frequent targets of false election fraud claims made by President Donald Trump and his supports after Trump lost his re-election bid in November 2020: The implication of the conspiracy theory was that the explosion had been intended to destroy the machines before they were audited in order to cover up evidence of massive voting fraud. The AT&T buildingon Second Avenueis owned by BellSouth Telecommunications, an operating company of AT&T, according to local records. Those networks are among the defendants Coomer is suing. So we will clear it up: Its fake. In August 2021, Dominion Voting Systems programmed machines for the county's upcoming elections. The Christmas morning bomb went off on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building. The AT&T building the posts likely refer to was not the one outside which the bomb exploded on Christmas morning. 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. The post implies that the bombing was an attempt to stop the audit and cover up voter fraud. Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities, Dominion Voting Systems added. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle owned by Warner. "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. 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. 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. Some users seemed to recognize the story as fake, but others didnt. 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. 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. 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. Its crazy, the amount of misinformation that you see, Mealy said. The post displays a headline from a fabricated story by the Genesius Times, a satirical news website, that reads: "BREAKING: Nashville Bomber died from COVID-19 shortly after blowing himself up. 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. 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. More on Dominion:Fact check: Viral photo shows fake logo and slogan for Dominion Voting Systems. We should be unplugging all of these machines from the internet, Skoglund said. Its disgusting. 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. February 28, 2023, 1:26 PM. 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. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays bombing, causing widespread communications outages. ( here and here ). However, the firm cited in that version of the claim Cerberus Capital Management doesnt own Dominion nor is it connected to Staple Street Capital, whichacquired Dominion in 2018. The FBI confirmed that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast. 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. That agreement is long over, and they no longer have the . Copyright 2023 Politifact. The company put the building back on the market shortly thereafter; MetLife Inc., throughsubsidiary Prefco Fourteen, now owns the building, public records show. "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. No available external evidence suggests AT&T was involved in any such audit, either. 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. 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. More:Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims. Powell was one of the faces of the Trump. ES&S confirmed they had sold scanners with wireless modems to at least 11 states. Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. US Elections were November 3, 2020. 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. We can not make our computers perfectly secure," he said. The post's creator did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. False. Representatives for companies involved say there is no truth to the claims. Dominion did not respond to numerous requests from NBC News for their sales numbers. subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. 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. 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. 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. While William Kennard serves on Staple Street Capitals board, he is not one of the companys co-founders as these posts claim (here). A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . The Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying. It also claims the AT&T building that was affected by the bomb is where those machines were being stored. So that unofficial election results can more quickly be relayed to the public. He believes there is time to make real change before the 2020 election. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle owned by Warner. ", 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.". We should not connect our voting machines directly to the computer networks. And I don't know that all these jurisdictions are aware of that because ES&S is advertising otherwise.. NBC News asked the two other major manufacturers how many of their tabulators with modems were currently in use. 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 ). 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. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. ", 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. 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. 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. Claims that two buildings that were destroyed on Christmas Day were both holding evidence related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election are untrue. In a Dominion-themed segment, an Infowars host speaking during a November Washington, D.C., rally presaged the January 6 violence by hyping the . He is focused on New Technologies around AI led Predictive Analytics, Smart Machines, IT Process Automation etc.. through . 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. 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. This is bogus. The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. A Dominion spokeswoman said other company employees have also gone to more secure locations, been threatened and been digitally stalked. 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. "I'm in fear for my family's safety. A Facebook post (here) shared more than a thousand times has falsely claimed: In New York a printing press company, under investigation for printing and shipping fake voting ballots into Pennsylvania, burned to the ground Xmas morning.. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. There was no evidence of a shooting, but both officers and witnesses heard a warning blare from the RV: "Evacuate now. There can still be security holes that allow hackers to get into the phone network.. The broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) owns Dominion. Donate State Editions California Florida On Monday, The Associated Press debunked claims that Dominion has any connection with AT&T. 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. 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 explosion injured three people and damaged several businesses, including the AT&T Building. The AT&T building in downtown Nashville. Some of that money was spent on tabulators with wireless modems. . 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. ", 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.". The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. Dominion 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, said Tony Fratto, a partner at the PR firm Hamilton Place Strategies who emailed the AP on behalf of Dominion. Even if an election is run perfectly, it doesn't matter to a sizable portion of the public who believes it was unfair. But he has no idea if that will ever be possible. Others are not so sure, and the state has set up an advisory committee. Dominion Voting Systems which commands more than a third of the voting-machine market without having Washington lobbyists has hired its first, a high-powered firm that includes a. 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. 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. 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). "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post.