"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. With unfounded fraud claims swirling, red California county dumps Dominion voting machines. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) owns Dominion. Bogus conspiracy theory spreading online claims the Nashville bombing was an attempt to cover up voter fraud. That flood reached Dominion the week after the election, according to Zignal, and misinformation related to the company's machines has been mentioned more than 10 million times since then. 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. Some of the posts (here) say: Dominion voting is owned by Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus is run by Staple Street Execs. Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. Don't Buy the Debunked Dominion Voting Machine Conspiracy Theory Kevin Monahan is a producer for the NBC News Investigative Unit. But to draw that connection, a number of other groups are brought into the fold and it doesn't add up. 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. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. On Christmas Day, an RV in Nashville, Tennessee, exploded, severelydamaging many of the buildings around it in the explosion. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. "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. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. Those networks are among the defendants Coomer is suing. "That's all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation with all of our partners. "Coincidence? The conservative network has seen its ratings surge in . It is true Kennard serves on the board of Staple Street Capital (not Staple Street execs as the posts say). 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. The investigation of the Nashville bombing is ongoing, but the Facebook post is inaccurate and ridiculous. In August 2021, Dominion Voting Systems programmed machines for the county's upcoming elections. Its crazy, the amount of misinformation that you see, Mealy said. 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. New warnings of hacking risks for voting systems connected to the internet, New questions about voting machines as 2020 election approaches, Oregon officials say vote-by-mail system improves security and turnout, Manufacturers who make voting machines testify before Congress. 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. False. 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.. "Dominion and AT&T have both called 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," a spokesperson for Dominion told USA TODAY. The voting conspiracy theories that have led millions of Republicans to feel as though the election was stolen from them, which are still spreading, have also led to calls for Coomer's head. Note that aspects of Tennessee law may differ with what is seen on the videos. 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. Coomer said the first barb aimed at him came five days after the election. 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. All rights reserved. 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. 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. 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. "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. The bomb is in this vehicle and will explode." This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Dominion did not respond to numerous requests from NBC News for their sales numbers. 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. The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies. 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. The AT&T buildingon Second Avenueis owned by BellSouth Telecommunications, an operating company of AT&T, according to local records. He also serves on the boards of Ford Motor Company, MetLife and Duke Energy Corporation (here). 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. Read more about our fact-checking workhere . 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. 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.". Thats an interesting coincidence.. 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. Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . 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 bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. 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. These claims are groundless. "Some of the threats that I've gotten have made very clear that these actors are in it for the long haul. Dominion Lawsuit Showcases Paul Ryan's - lucianne.com We kept hearing from election officials that voting machines were never on the internet, he said. Its disgusting. Fact check: Nashville bombing-Dominion Voting Systems link is a The location of the heavily damaged buildings seen in the photograph accompanying the post appear to show 170 to 176 2nd Avenue North in Nashville after the explosion. The question is.. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays bombing, causing widespread communications outages. 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. "Anthony Warner is the bomber. False. 2023 www.statesman.com. ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. 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. The BoykinZ emerge from TikTok as youngest stars in country's Black Generally speaking, the media in those locations are kinda clamoring to get unofficial results as quickly as possible., When asked if the desire for speed was at odds with accuracy and security, Burt said, its not my place to judge that.. Newsmax Settles Dominion Executive's Defamation Lawsuit, Apologizes "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. Please note the instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. 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. In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. 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. We should not connect our voting machines directly to the computer networks. Alex Jones uses lies about Dominion Voting Systems and the 2020 "So, the explosion 'just happened . There was no evidence of a shooting, but both officers and witnesses heard a warning blare from the RV: "Evacuate now. AT&T not conducting voting machine audit near Nashville explosion site Dominion's Defamation Lawsuits Are Still Active - FactCheck.org Modems in voting machines are a bad idea, said Appel. 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. 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. 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. ES&S has repeatedly advertised its DS200 with internal modem a critical component to ES&Ss voting systems as being EAC certified when, in fact, it is not, the letter said. Dominion Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software. Breitbart, by Hannah Bleau Original Article. The complicated theory began circulating soon after an RV exploded in downtown Nashville. However, he is not tied to Joe Biden and is not his sister Valerie Biden Owens husband. 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. Copyright 2023 Politifact. Conspiracy theorists say the suicide bombing that rocked downtown Nashville was actually the result of a missile strike. Kevin Skoglund, senior technical advisor at the National Election Defense Coalition. In the weeks following the election, the election technology firm Dominion Voting Systems has been the target of baseless allegations of election fraud, according to the Washington Post.Now a viral Facebook post attempts to connect President-elect Joe Biden to the company by claiming his sister is married to Stephen Owens, who, the post alleges, owns Dominion Voting Systems. 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. 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. Before starting Staple Street Capital, Yaghoobzadeh worked as a senior vice president for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. 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). 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 that Warner owned. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle owned by Warner. That's false. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. U.S. finds no evidence flaws in Dominion voting machines - CBS News "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." 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. February 28, 2023, 1:26 PM. Some posts have said the Nashville explosion was caused by a missile. The Poynter Institute Menu. 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 ). Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T,also told USA TODAY the claims are "not true.". for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. The FBI confirmed that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast. But none of this is true. 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. Joe Bidens Brother in Law, Steven Owens, is the cofounder of Staple Street Execs along with William Kennard (mentioned above).. Dominion told AFP the claim is "another bizarre lie being spread by known conspiracy theorists.". The reason? There may not be answers to the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville anytime soon. Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? The Company offers voting systems and scanning devices, as well as resource planning, training management, quality control . The largest manufacturer of voting machines, ES&S, told NBC News their systems are protected by firewalls and are not on the public internet. But both Skoglund and Andrew Appel, a Princeton computer science professor and expert on elections, said such firewalls can and have been breached. The broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. Powell is named in Coomer's suit, along with the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. 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. Dominion Going After Right-Wing Media Stars Over Voting Fraud 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. Jim Greer, Assistant Vice President of Corporate Communications at AT&T, told Reuters via email: None of the things in the post are true.. RUMOR ALERT: Dominion Voting Systems Fraud Claims PolitiFact - No, AT&T was not conducting an audit of Dominion Voting 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). 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 wishes are that I forever have to look over my shoulder," Coomer said. "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. Posts include debunked conspiracy claims attempting to tie the Nashville explosion Dominion voting systems. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. But now, some state officials worry that the machines may pose a security risk and are pushing to have the modems removed. 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. "The minute I saw it, it left a big pit in my stomach," he said. We should be unplugging all of these machines from the internet, Skoglund said. "What we should do is remove all of the unnecessary, hackable pathways, such as modems. The FBI confirmed that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast. Dominion was the first to snap. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. ", Both Snopes and AFP reached the same conclusion. 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. 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. Rating: False About this rating On Christmas. No one is currently working out of the building. The post provides no links to evidence for their allegations. A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . 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. There's a third company, Clear Ballot Group which is currently under testing by the state of Florida, the official audit review of their software began May 17th, but that is not . PolitiFact - No, AT&T was not conducting an audit of Dominion Voting reads the post caption from Red Pill Radio, a Facebook account that bears the slogan of the, However, the firm cited in that version of the claim Cerberus Capital Management doesnt own Dominion nor is it connected to Staple Street Capital, which, PolitiFact's partnership with Facebook here, Our ethics policy for PolitiFact journalists, WRAL partners with PolitiFact NC to fact check political stories. 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.