Powell is named in Coomer's suit, along with the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Dominion provides election equipment and software to 28 states, including many of the swing states on which Trump has focused his post-election ire. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. 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,. That building is located at 333 Commerce St., roughly a quarter mile from where the bomb went off. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. Sumit Ganguli is the CEO and Member of the Board at GAVS Technologies. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read more about our fact-checking work here . "Thats an interesting coincidence.". This conspiracy theory has been debunked by various experts as reported by Reuters here and other fact checkers including Snopes, Factcheck.org and PolitiFact here , here and here . Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. Breitbart, by Hannah Bleau Original Article. Thank you for supporting our journalism. Reuters debunked this claim here . 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. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. This screengrab is being shared on social media without that context. And then run the ballots through the machine a few times. And I don't know that all these jurisdictions are aware of that because ES&S is advertising otherwise.. All rights reserved. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth.. His top goal right now is pretty simple hoping one day it'll be safe to return home. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth. 4 min read. The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. 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. 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. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. John Bazemore/AP Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? 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. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536. But that is an overstatement, according to a team of 10 independent cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections. 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. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities, Dominion Voting Systems added. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. 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. 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. In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. Even though it has a blue Nashville and a blue Memphis. ( here and here ). The Poynter Institute Menu. Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. Previous claims had said the bomb had targeted the AT&T building and that Dominion Voting Systems machines were being audited there(here). Cerberus Capital previously owned the AT&T Building, onceknownas the BellSouth Building,where the company has operated its Tennessee headquarters since the building's erection in 1994. And we knew that wasn't true. Staple Street Capital took part in a deal with management to acquire Dominion in 2018 (here and here). 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. 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. In August 2021, Dominion Voting Systems programmed machines for the county's upcoming elections. The Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying. In counties that used Dominion systems, Biden got 888,259 votes to Trump's 851,069. Let's start here: The man behind the Dec. 25 bombing in downtown Nashville, Tenn., died of COVID-19, according to a popular and wrong Facebook post. 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. The company recently threatened a number of groups repeating the claims with lawsuits, including One America News Network, Newsmax and Fox News. While William Kennard serves on Staple Street Capitals board, he is not one of the companys co-founders as these posts claim (here). No amount of transparency at the county and state level can really combat the sort of megaphone that Trump wields, Kiniry says. 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. This weekend, both Fox Business Network and Newsmax appeared to answer those demands with segments debunking some claims. ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. US Elections were November 3, 2020. Full Story. In . Fact-checkers have debunked claims that the explosion was the result of a missile strike. for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. "I've been threatened more times than I could even count. Three days later, on November 6th, AT&T named William "Bill" E. Kennard Chairman of its Board of Directors. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. why?" 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. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. The New York Attorney Generals office said they could not confirm nor deny any investigation. Newsmax TV aired a stunning fact-check on Monday of claims made on the network about voting companies used in the 2020 presidential election. 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). 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. The bomb is in this vehicle and will explode." Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . Owens, the other co-founder of Staple Street Capital,did not work for Cerberus, despite the post's claim. Investigators say the explosion in Nashville was perpetrated by a 63-year-old Tennessean named Anthony Warner, who blared a warning to nearby people from his RV requesting they evacuate before the bomb detonated. CNN didnt report that Anthony Warner, the person authorities have identified as the bomber, died from COVID-19. But companies that specialize in the subject said it is getting exponentially worse. 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. 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. Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T, told USA TODAY the claims are "not true. "The minute I saw it, it left a big pit in my stomach," he said. 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. That is just inviting trouble.. It was an assurance designed to bolster public confidence in the way America votes: Voting machines are not connected to the internet.. Thats an interesting coincidence., Some posts read: 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. The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. . A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . Earlier this week, Skoglund showed NBC three election systems were still online even after officials had been told they were vulnerable. In the wake of the Christmas morning explosion in Nashville, Tenn., a baseless conspiracy theory started circulating online that 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. 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.