The wishes are that I forever have to look over my shoulder," Coomer said. THE FACTS: As federal officials work to piece together a motive for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. 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. "So, the explosion 'just happened . 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. 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 electronic voting system company accused the television network of spreading lies that Dominion machines were used to rig the 2020 election against Donald Trump. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. There can still be security holes that allow hackers to get into the phone network.. Powell is named in Coomer's suit, along with the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. 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. 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. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. While Kennard served at the FCC and as EU ambassador and he joined AT&Ts board of directors as Chairman in Nov. 2020 (here), Greer confirmed Kennard is not the former owner of the AT&T building that was destroyed in Nashville, as the posts claim. 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. Since the 2016 election, Michigan authorized $82 million dollars to upgrade its election systems. In . 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 . Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . The report claims the results of the election in . 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. 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. The voting rights of more than 55,000 formerly incarcerated Minnesotans were restored on Friday, as Gov. Owens, the other co-founder of Staple Street Capital,did not work for Cerberus, despite the post's claim. The House Committee on Administration held a congressional hearing yesterday which was the first time the heads of the three major vendors, representing at least 80 percent of U.S. voting machines, appeared together for questioning. The question is.. Their evidence: a grainy black-and-white video. 2023 www.statesman.com. . Joe Bidens Brother in Law, Steven Owens, is the cofounder of Staple Street Execs along with William Kennard (mentioned above).. 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. TheBatman-shaped skyscraper was first owned by Prefco XIV, a limited partnership ofPitney Bowes, which bought the building in 1994 for $100.8 million, according to the building's deed. The broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. Last fall, when ES&S gave NBC News an exclusive tour at its headquarters in Omaha, Neb., Chief Executive Officer Tom Burt defended using modems when asked about the Sprint and Verizon modems seen in ES&S's testing area. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. A spokesperson for the FBI's Denver Field Office confirmed that the FBI executed the . 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 . The accusation started with a conservative activist in Colorado, Joe Oltmann. 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 . 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. The explosion injured three people and damaged several businesses, including the AT&T Building. Some of the posts (here) say: Dominion voting is owned by Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus is run by Staple Street Execs. James Murphy, a spokesperson for MetLife, confirmed the company owns the building. Those networks are among the defendants Coomer is suing. 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 Tuesday, Coomer sued the Trump campaign and a number of allies, alleging defamation. The New York Attorney Generals office said they could not confirm nor deny any investigation. The bomb is in this vehicle and will explode." There is no reason to suppose that it would be likely, or even possible, that these buildings, would be used to audit voting machines. Then, a plume of smoke rises behind three light poles. 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. But now, some state officials worry that the machines may pose a security risk and are pushing to have the modems removed. hide caption. 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. A post on Facebook theorized that the two disasters were connected by a plot to steal the election. 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. Dominion is a company that supplies voting machines in more than two-dozen states, including Ohio. 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. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. 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. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) owns Dominion. 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. Rumors about an investigation into the company do not even appear in web searches until after the fire. Skoglund says those include the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. 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. 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). Behind it is the notion that if voting systems are not online, hackers will have a harder time compromising them. 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? read another post. But none of this is true. 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. Thats an interesting coincidence.. And then run the ballots through the machine a few times. A Dominion spokeswoman said other company employees have also gone to more secure locations, been threatened and been digitally stalked. There is no evidence that the New York printing company whose building burnt down on Christmas Day was under investigation for printing false ballots. https://archive.is/qqjBh Paul E. Singer-Elliott Management, aka "The Vulture", reportedly controls CNN parent, AT&T, as well as Twitter. 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. 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. "Anthony Warner is the bomber. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. Its disgusting. 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. It really is. 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.". Kevin Monahan is a producer for the NBC News Investigative Unit. It was an assurance designed to bolster public confidence in the way America votes: Voting machines are not connected to the internet.. Texas country-punk band Vandoliers are standing in solidarity with drag performers and the LGBTQ+ community. And we knew that wasn't true. Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . The cities of West Bend and Mequon's Dominion machine audit found one vote changed each after their hand counts. "What we should do is remove all of the unnecessary, hackable pathways, such as modems. Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities, Dominion Voting Systems added. Reuters Fact Check previously debunked this claim here . The Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying. Claims that two buildings that were destroyed on Christmas Day were both holding evidence related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election are untrue. 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. Previous claims had said the bomb had targeted the AT&T building and that Dominion Voting Systems machines were being audited there(here). 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. 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. "I'm in fear for my family's safety. US Elections were November 3, 2020. Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. Cerberus Capital did briefly own an AT&T building, but the post is wrong about which one. The following three posts were flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. There is a bomb. The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. the dominion voting system that was the subject of an enormous amount of controversy, is a dramatic improvement over prior forms of voting. Authorities still dont know the reason for the Christmas day bombing, but theres no evidence it was election related. Conspiracy theorists say the suicide bombing that rocked downtown Nashville was actually the result of a missile strike. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. 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. It wasn't meant to kill people, but to destroy a building. The printing business took to social media to debunk the claim itself. 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. So did the type of explosives used to detonate the blast. "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. 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. Even if an election is run perfectly, it doesn't matter to a sizable portion of the public who believes it was unfair. Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. . 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.". 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. 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. Hart said that it has approximately 1,600 such tabulators in use in 11 counties in Michigan. ES&S confirmed they had sold scanners with wireless modems to at least 11 states. A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . 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. 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. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. 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 user did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment, either. 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. The coalition says it is no longer certain that the number of states is correct, so the figure has been removed from the article. . Some posts have said the Nashville explosion was caused by a missile. (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.). "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. Other posts on social media have gone a step further, alleging that Dominion is tied to the bombing through ownership of the affected AT&T building. 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. 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. ", 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. Some have also received threatening letters. Both Dominion Voting Systems andAT&T confirmed the communications company was not contracted to audit Dominion's machines. Newsmax TV aired a stunning fact-check on Monday of claims made on the network about voting companies used in the 2020 presidential election. Videos from law enforcement officials and local businesses show that the explosion occurred on 2nd Avenue North in downtown Nashville. In counties that used Dominion systems, Biden got 888,259 votes to Trump's 851,069. 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. After that podcast went out, the threats quickly arrived. 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. Now, the alleged Dominion Voting Systems tie. There may not be answers to the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville anytime soon. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. 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. But that is an overstatement, according to a team of 10 independent cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth.. "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. Skoglund said that they identified only one company among the systems they detected on line, ES&S. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. ", 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 same Facebook post also said Dominion voting machines were being audited in the AT&T building that was destroyed by a bomb in Nashville. he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. 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. All rights reserved. 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. Fact-checkers have debunked claims that the explosion was the result of a missile strike. 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. 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. Oltmann claimed that Coomer said with a laugh on the call that he would make sure Trump didn't win the election. "That's all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation with all of our partners. Secretary Hargett is the chief executive officer of the Department of State with oversight of more than 300 employees. "Coincidence? 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 ). NBC News asked the two other major manufacturers how many of their tabulators with modems were currently in use. "You can see as theres a line flying in, theres a little bit of a glow and then theres the explosion," a narrator says in the video. So that unofficial election results can more quickly be relayed to the public. It is true Kennard serves on the board of Staple Street Capital (not Staple Street execs as the posts say). "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. "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 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. 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. John Bazemore/AP The RV was parked on Second Avenue in Nashville, outside an AT&Ttransmission building, among other businesses and residences. But Skogland points to some good news. Dominion Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software. Dominion Lawsuit Showcases Paul Ryan's Influence over Fox News Channel's Editorial Control. 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 company, which sells electronic voting hardware and software, contends that some Fox News employees deliberately amplified false claims by Trump supporters that Dominion machines had changed . The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies. 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 bulletin circulated among state election officials earlier this week and publicly shared online, Friday marks the first time CISA has used its vulnerability disclosure program to probe . City Blue Imaging Services' Facebook, Dec. 27. The Nashville outlet found . 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. The company put the building back on the market shortly thereafter; MetLife Inc., throughsubsidiary Prefco Fourteen, now owns the building, public records show. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. APS ASSESSMENT: False. This weekend, both Fox Business Network and Newsmax appeared to answer those demands with segments debunking some claims. No one is currently working out of the building. 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. Federal officials have identified the man believed to be behind the bombing, and they are working to discern a motive. 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.