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. There is no evidence that the New York printing company whose building burnt down on Christmas Day was under investigation for printing false ballots. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. 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. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Dominion provides election equipment and software to 28 states, including many of the swing states on which Trump has focused his post-election ire. Posts include debunked conspiracy claims attempting to tie the Nashville explosion Dominion voting systems. 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. Some just say AT&T had a contract to conduct a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems. The AT&T building the posts likely refer to was not the one outside which the bomb exploded on Christmas morning. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. 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. 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. This is bogus. Social media is home to several conspiracy theories about the explosion in Nashville on Christmas Day. Dominion Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software. 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. The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. The Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying. It is true Kennard serves on the board of Staple Street Capital (not Staple Street execs as the posts say). "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. Dominion did not respond to numerous requests from NBC News for their sales numbers. "The FBI corralled me in Mankato, Minnesota, and took my cell phone," Lindell told the Reformer. Others are not so sure, and the state has set up an advisory committee. 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. On Christmas Day, an RV in Nashville, Tennessee, exploded, severelydamaging many of the buildings around it in the explosion. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has dismissed the claim of an election hacking and vote manipulation operation known as Hammer and Scorecard. (here). But that is an overstatement, according to a team of 10 independent cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections. Texas country-punk band Vandoliers are standing in solidarity with drag performers and the LGBTQ+ community. Joe Bidens Brother in Law, Steven Owens, is the cofounder of Staple Street Execs along with William Kennard (mentioned above).. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. 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. Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . 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. Newsmax TV aired a stunning fact-check on Monday of claims made on the network about voting companies used in the 2020 presidential election. 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. "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 AT&T buildingon Second Avenueis owned by BellSouth Telecommunications, an operating company of AT&T, according to local records. 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 . Skoglund and his team developed a tool that scoured the internet to see if the central computers that program voting machines and run the entire election process at the precinct level were online. Please note the instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. And then run the ballots through the machine a few times. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. All those. 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. Some of the posts (here) say: Dominion voting is owned by Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus is run by Staple Street Execs. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays bombing, causing widespread communications outages. Thats an interesting coincidence.. Kevin Monahan is a producer for the NBC News Investigative Unit. NBC News asked the two other major manufacturers how many of their tabulators with modems were currently in use. 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. The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Those modems connect to cell phone networks, which, in turn, are connected to the internet. 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 three largest voting manufacturing companies Election Systems &Software, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic have acknowledged they all put modems in some of their tabulators and scanners. 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. Warner died in the blast, according to authorities. James Murphy, a spokesperson for MetLife, confirmed the company owns the building. Examples can be seen here , here and here . Reuters Fact Check previously debunked this claim here . The Genesius Times describes itself as the "most reliable source of fake news on the planet" and that it strives "to provide the most up-to-date, accurate fake news on the Internet,", "Nashville explosion a missile strike??" 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. But none of this is true. 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. Next theory: The bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. On Tuesday, Coomer sued the Trump campaign and a number of allies, alleging defamation. The FBI confirmed that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast. 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. We rate thisclaim as FALSE, because it wasn't supported by our research. 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. "Coincidence? The posts all tie AT&T with Dominion, holding the explosion to be alleged proof of conspiracy. 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. Skoglund says those include the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. 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. https://archive.is/qqjBh Paul E. Singer-Elliott Management, aka "The Vulture", reportedly controls CNN parent, AT&T, as well as Twitter. Copyright 2023 Politifact. Last week, Dominion filed its fourth defamation lawsuit, this one a $1.6 billion whopper charging that Fox News spread the bogus conspiracy claim in order to boost ratings that plummeted after. Immediately, Coomer knew things would blow up. 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. Much of the voting equipment was by Dominion. The post provides no links to evidence for their allegations. With unfounded fraud claims swirling, red California county dumps Dominion voting machines. causing widespread communications outages. 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. 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. Sumit Ganguli is the CEO and Member of the Board at GAVS Technologies. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth. Dominion is a company that supplies voting machines in more than two-dozen states, including Ohio. The accusation started with a conservative activist in Colorado, Joe Oltmann. President Donald Trump's attorney Lin Wood reportedly experienced a series of ups and downs Sunday in a court battle to ensure Georgia elections officials do not wipe Dominion voting machines, and won a temporary restraining order following a night-time Zoom hearing. 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 . 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. Facebook post:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. Kevin Skoglund, senior technical advisor at the National Election Defense Coalition. The bomb is in this vehicle and will explode." Hismotive is unknown. "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. Powell was one of the faces of the Trump. Claims that two buildings that were destroyed on Christmas Day were both holding evidence related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election are untrue. 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. Bogus conspiracy theory spreading online claims the Nashville bombing was an attempt to cover up voter fraud. Even for elections nights., Appel agreed. Authorities still dont know the reason for the Christmas day bombing, but theres no evidence it was election related. AT&T and Verizon and so on try and protect as best they can the security of their phone network from the rest of the internet, but its still part of the internet, Appel explained. The post implies that the bombing was an attempt to stop the audit and cover up voter fraud. Reuters debunked this claim here . 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.. That's false. Georgia, the site of so much controversy in the 2020 election, hurriedly switched in response to a judge's order in 2019 from all-electronic voting machines to Dominion models that. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Its disgusting. While federal investigators are still looking into the bombing, law enforcement officials have said Warner was responsible and died in the blast. APS ASSESSMENT: False. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. 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. 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. 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. No amount of transparency at the county and state level can really combat the sort of megaphone that Trump wields, Kiniry says. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. 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. Oltmann claimed that Coomer said with a laugh on the call that he would make sure Trump didn't win the election. He also serves on 16 boards and commissions, on two of which he is the presiding member. This weekend, both Fox Business Network and Newsmax appeared to answer those demands with segments debunking some claims. 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. Some users seemed to recognize the story as fake, but others didnt. the post reads. The conspiracy theory appears to have originated in a tweet by Lin Wood, an attorney and Trump supporter, who has pushed a number of false election claims. The post's creator did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. Rumors about an investigation into the company do not even appear in web searches until after the fire. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. 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 . All of these businesses were reported to be damaged in the blast (here). Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. Read more about our fact-checking workhere . So did the type of explosives used to detonate the blast. 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. 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. This is bogus. Owens, the other co-founder of Staple Street Capital,did not work for Cerberus, despite the post's claim. There is a bomb. 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. 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. "Bombing investigations can take years," Darrell DeBusk, an FBI spokesman based inTennessee, told The Tennessean. The coalition says it is no longer certain that the number of states is correct, so the figure has been removed from the article. 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. 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.. He has independently become part of the broader Dominion conspiracy theories, though, with some claiming he's Joe Biden's brother-in-law. Earlier this week, Skoglund showed NBC three election systems were still online even after officials had been told they were vulnerable. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". Social media posts from the event tagged the far-right group the Proud Boys. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) 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.". At its core is the prediction thatan alleged mass arrest ofhigh-profile Democrats and celebritieswould be carried out while now-former President Donald Trump secretly savedthe world from a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. The RV was parked on Second Avenue in Nashville, outside an AT&Ttransmission building, among other businesses and residences. 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. Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . This is part of The Associated Press ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform. 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. 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). 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. 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. The AT&T building in downtown Nashville. False. 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). Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays. The posts on social mediaallege the bombing is tied to Dominion Voting Systems, an election technology supplier that's been central to many right-wing, QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. A Dominion voting machine in Georgia. Didi Martinez is an associate producer with the NBC News Investigative Unit. "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.. Now, the alleged Dominion Voting Systems tie. According to the post, that firm ownedthe AT&T building outside of which the Christmas bombing occurred. In preparing for this November's election, the company gamed out all sorts of worst-case scenarios, but it wasn't on anyone's radar that Dominion and its employees could become the targets of threats. 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. But companies that specialize in the subject said it is getting exponentially worse. There was no evidence of a shooting, but both officers and witnesses heard a warning blare from the RV: "Evacuate now. Were focusing on moving forward.. Please note t he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. Videos from law enforcement officials and local businesses show that the explosion occurred on 2nd Avenue North in downtown Nashville. There are currently two voting systems which are certified by the State of Florida's Division of Elections. 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? No available external evidence suggests AT&T was involved in any such audit, either. 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. In counties that used Dominion systems, Biden got 888,259 votes to Trump's 851,069. He is focused on New Technologies around AI led Predictive Analytics, Smart Machines, IT Process Automation etc.. through . Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T,also told USA TODAY the claims are "not true.". Representatives for companies involved say there is no truth to the claims. We kept hearing from election officials that voting machines were never on the internet, he said. Before starting Staple Street Capital, Yaghoobzadeh worked as a senior vice president for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. 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. subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Rating: False About this rating On Christmas. "Some of the threats that I've gotten have made very clear that these actors are in it for the long haul. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. "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. why?" 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. That team of election security experts say that last summer, they discovered some systems are, in fact, online. "That's all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation with all of our partners. "I've been threatened more times than I could even count. US Elections were November 3, 2020. But now, some state officials worry that the machines may pose a security risk and are pushing to have the modems removed. For election systems to be online, even momentarily, presents a serious problem, according to Appel. Those networks are among the defendants Coomer is suing. "So, the explosion 'just happened . In an interview with Rochester's ABC 13, City Blue Imagingsales manager John Mealy condemned misinformation about the tragedy and dismissed the claims again. 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. City Blue Imaging Services' Facebook, Dec. 27. Speaker 13 . The post reads: In Nashville 2 days ago an RV pulled up to a building and over a loud speaker announced to clear the area..the RV then blew up taking half a building with it..oh, minor detail - inside that building were the Dominion voting machines being audited. 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 area of the explosion or were being audited in Nashville that day. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. The machines America votes on seem to be capturing the interest of some in Congress. 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. "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.