Cerberus Capital did briefly own an AT&T building, but the post is wrong about which one. We can not make our computers perfectly secure," he said. 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. Thank you for supporting our journalism. He also serves on the boards of Ford Motor Company, MetLife and Duke Energy Corporation (here). More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. There are currently two voting systems which are certified by the State of Florida's Division of Elections. 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. All those. View list by county(.pdf) and learn more about each system using the links below. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth. 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 ). The ATT building in Nashville that was affected by the bomb was owned by Cerebus (sic) Capital. CNN didnt report that Anthony Warner, the person authorities have identified as the bomber, died from COVID-19. 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. But he has no idea if that will ever be possible. Dominion did not respond to numerous requests from NBC News for their sales numbers. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. 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. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. He is focused on New Technologies around AI led Predictive Analytics, Smart Machines, IT Process Automation etc.. through . For Coomer, that means his life may be forever changed. Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. Now, the alleged Dominion Voting Systems tie. 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. Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities, Dominion Voting Systems added. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. So we will clear it up: Its fake. 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). 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. More:Neighbor recalls warning, countdown before Nashville explosion. 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. ES&S confirmed they had sold scanners with wireless modems to at least 11 states. In a Dominion-themed segment, an Infowars host speaking during a November Washington, D.C., rally presaged the January 6 violence by hyping the . the post reads. The Nashville outlet found . he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. NBC News asked the two other major manufacturers how many of their tabulators with modems were currently in use. hide caption. 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. 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. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) owns Dominion. 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. February 28, 2023, 1:26 PM. 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,. 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. While William Kennard serves on Staple Street Capitals board, he is not one of the companys co-founders as these posts claim (here). AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. "Some of the threats that I've gotten have made very clear that these actors are in it for the long haul. For election systems to be online, even momentarily, presents a serious problem, according to Appel. "That's all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation with all of our partners. 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. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The post, which has been shared almost 900 times, makes two claims: A building damaged in the Nashville explosion was holding Dominion Voting Systems machines set to be audited, and in New. Videos from law enforcement officials and local businesses show that the explosion occurred on 2nd Avenue North in downtown Nashville. The complicated theory began circulating soon after an RV exploded in downtown Nashville. 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. It's the first . 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. ( here and here ). Hart said that it has approximately 1,600 such tabulators in use in 11 counties in Michigan. The post also mentions the Kraken or supercomputer and says that the cooling system for this computer was located in the AT&T building. 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. 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. 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 broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. 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 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. Then, a plume of smoke rises behind three light poles. We kept hearing from election officials that voting machines were never on the internet, he said. The bomb squad was en route. Dominion Lawsuit Showcases Paul Ryan's Influence over Fox News Channel's Editorial Control. Hismotive is unknown. ", 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. He was present when the bomb went off, and he perished in the bombing," Cochran said. Nashville's date on June 7 at GEODIS Park will feature Kelsea Ballerini and BRELAND -- and now, The Boykinz. The reason? In . "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. 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. . The video, which was posted by a Facebook page called Red Pill Radio on Dec. 28, shows the outline of buildings and a highway in Nashville. Rumors about an investigation into the company do not even appear in web searches until after the fire. It also claims the AT&T building that was affected by the bomb is where those machines were being stored. The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. Examples can be seen here , here and here . According to the post, that firm ownedthe AT&T building outside of which the Christmas bombing occurred. A Dominion voting machine in Georgia. Here are the facts: CLAIM: President-elect Joe Biden's sister is married to Stephen Owens, the co-founder of the private equity firm Staple Street Capital, which owns Dominion Voting Systems . . subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Dominionwas acquired by private equity firm Staple Street Capital, co-founded by financiers Hootan Yaghoobzadeh and StephenOwens, in 2018. 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. The machines America votes on seem to be capturing the interest of some in Congress. 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. 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. He has independently become part of the broader Dominion conspiracy theories, though, with some claiming he's Joe Biden's brother-in-law. 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. 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. 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. Much of the voting equipment was by Dominion. The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. 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 . 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. Select an Infowars smear of Dominion Voting Systems. Skoglund says those include the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. That team of election security experts say that last summer, they discovered some systems are, in fact, online. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle owned by Warner. But Skogland points to some good news. Secretary Hargett is the chief executive officer of the Department of State with oversight of more than 300 employees. The extent of our relationship is this: In 2009, Smartmatic licensed the use of a Dominion voting machine for use in the Philippines. Reuters debunked this claim here . (Photo by James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images). We should not connect our voting machines directly to the computer networks. Now the process of counting these votes . 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 does not hold a contract to audit Dominions software or machines and did not have any of the companys equipment in its Nashville building. 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 . In counties that used Dominion systems, Biden got 888,259 votes to Trump's 851,069. Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T,also told USA TODAY the claims are "not true.". Donate State Editions California Florida 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. 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. 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. 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. City Blue Imaging Services' Facebook, Dec. 27. On Dec. 27, U.S. Attorney Don Cochran said the explosion appeared to be a suicide bombing carried out by a Warner. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. "The minute I saw it, it left a big pit in my stomach," he said. But none of this is true. 4 min read. "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. "What we should do is remove all of the unnecessary, hackable pathways, such as modems. 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. ", 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.". The coalition says it is no longer certain that the number of states is correct, so the figure has been removed from the article. Texas country-punk band Vandoliers are standing in solidarity with drag performers and the LGBTQ+ community. 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. Some posts have said the Nashville explosion was caused by a missile. 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. A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . Last month Dominion filed a $1.6bn defamation suit against Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, accusing it of trying to boost ratings by amplifying the bogus claims. While the voting machines themselves are not designed to be online, the larger voting systems in many states end up there, putting the voting process at risk. Newsmax TV aired a stunning fact-check on Monday of claims made on the network about voting companies used in the 2020 presidential election. AT&T not conducting voting machine audit near Nashville explosion site. False. 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 Voting Systems, a voting machine manufacturer founded in Canada, made equipment that is used in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. First, QAnon. "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. Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.). 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. Kevin Monahan is a producer for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 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. All of these businesses were reported to be damaged in the blast (here). 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 . Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. 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. New York State Police Director of Public Information Beau Duffy told Reuters via email they were unaware of any state police investigations relating to the claims linking the paper company to ballots. 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. 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. On Christmas Day, an RV in Nashville, Tennessee, exploded, severelydamaging many of the buildings around it in the explosion. 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. IE 11 is not supported. ", 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.". There was no evidence of a shooting, but both officers and witnesses heard a warning blare from the RV: "Evacuate now. Claims that two buildings that were destroyed on Christmas Day were both holding evidence related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election are untrue. Some of Trump's supporters have focused on Coomer as the supposed evil mastermind. Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T, told USA TODAY the claims are "not true. The investigation of the Nashville bombing is ongoing, but the Facebook post is inaccurate and ridiculous. 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. ", Both Snopes and AFP reached the same conclusion. The Christmas morning bomb went off on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building. Powell was one of the faces of the Trump. Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. 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. 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. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The FBI confirmed that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast. The company put the building back on the market shortly thereafter; MetLife Inc., throughsubsidiary Prefco Fourteen, now owns the building, public records show. 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). More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. . 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 . Coomer said the first barb aimed at him came five days after the election. The explosion disrupted AT&T wireless and internet services, leading to widespread 911 issues in the Nashville area, The Tennessean reported. One of the largest voting machine suppliers in the U.S. Dominion Voting Systems sued Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who represented former President Donald Trump, after they . According to Dominion, vote-switching and software malfunction allegations are "all baseless claims" that "have been debunked by election officials, subject matter experts and third-party fact. As of now, the person of interest identified by the FBI in connection with the explosion, Anthony Quinn Warner, is believed to have been "paranoid about 5G technology" (another frequent subject of conspiracy theories) rather than possessing any election-related motive. Breitbart, by Hannah Bleau Original Article. In an interview with Rochester's ABC 13, City Blue Imagingsales manager John Mealy condemned misinformation about the tragedy and dismissed the claims again. That agreement is long over, and they no longer have the . All rights reserved. Staple Street Capital has a managing director and co-founder named Stephen Owens. 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. But that is an overstatement, according to a team of 10 independent cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections. There is no evidence to support the claim that the explosionin Nashville and fire in Rochester, New York,that occurred around the holidays point toward a broader conspiracy to hide election malfeasance.