The bomb is in this vehicle and will explode." The 23-page report signed by a former Republican congressional candidate with a history of spreading misinformation about Michigan's election claims Dominion "is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.". 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. 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). 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. 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. 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. Since the 2016 election, Michigan authorized $82 million dollars to upgrade its election systems. 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. 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. 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. However, he is not tied to Joe Biden and is not his sister Valerie Biden Owens husband. And I don't know that all these jurisdictions are aware of that because ES&S is advertising otherwise.. The conservative network has seen its ratings surge in . Texas country-punk band Vandoliers are standing in solidarity with drag performers and the LGBTQ+ community. 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. That's false. 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. 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. IE 11 is not supported. All of these businesses were reported to be damaged in the blast (here). Modems in voting machines are a bad idea, said Appel. The coalition says it is no longer certain that the number of states is correct, so the figure has been removed from the article. Those modems connect to cell phone networks, which, in turn, are connected to the internet. 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. 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 . 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.. More:Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims. The bomb squad was en route. 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. 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. 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. the post reads. Posts include debunked conspiracy claims attempting to tie the Nashville explosion Dominion voting systems. Warner died in the blast, according to authorities. But Skogland points to some good news. The New York Attorney Generals office said they could not confirm nor deny any investigation. The AT&T buildingon Second Avenueis owned by BellSouth Telecommunications, an operating company of AT&T, according to local records. Powell is named in Coomer's suit, along with the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. 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 . While federal investigators are still looking into the bombing, law enforcement officials have said Warner was responsible and died in the blast. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. With unfounded fraud claims swirling, red California county dumps Dominion voting 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. Rating: False About this rating On Christmas. 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. The accusation started with a conservative activist in Colorado, Joe Oltmann. US Elections were November 3, 2020. He also serves on the boards of Ford Motor Company, MetLife and Duke Energy Corporation (here). Secretary Hargett is the chief executive officer of the Department of State with oversight of more than 300 employees. 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. Statement:The Nashville bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. 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. "To the misinformed people on @Twitter and @instagram #cityblueimaging does not print #ballots, does not do work for #Phoenixgraphics and was never owned by the owner of #phoenixgraphics," the company wrote on its Facebook page on Dec. 27. Copyright 2023 Politifact. 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. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". In 2006, Cerberus Capital acquired it, according to a 2006 News Channel 5 Nashville report. 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. 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 ithelps spread COVID-19and is used as a spying tool by the government. 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 . 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. Skoglund says those include the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. 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. The post implies that the bombing was an attempt to stop the audit and cover up voter fraud. 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. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. 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. CNN didnt report that Anthony Warner, the person authorities have identified as the bomber, died from COVID-19. If you have super majorities, Tennessee is like an R plus twenty state. Kevin Monahan is a producer for the NBC News Investigative Unit. the dominion voting system that was the subject of an enormous amount of controversy, is a dramatic improvement over prior forms of voting. It wasn't meant to kill people, but to destroy a building. The AT&T building in downtown Nashville. Dominion has been the target of a wide range of false posts since American voters chose Joe Biden as their next president, despite no evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities in the 2020 election. 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. Note that aspects of Tennessee law may differ with what is seen on the videos. "I actually am in fear for my safety," Coomer said recently, speaking by video call from an undisclosed location to Colorado Public Radio. The AT&T building the posts likely refer to was not the one outside which the bomb exploded on Christmas morning. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. 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. Some just say AT&T had a contract to conduct a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems. ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. James Murphy, a spokesperson for MetLife, confirmed the company owns the building. The user who created the post did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. 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. https://archive.is/qqjBh Paul E. Singer-Elliott Management, aka "The Vulture", reportedly controls CNN parent, AT&T, as well as Twitter. Some have also received threatening letters. 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. 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 . Conspiracy theorists say the suicide bombing that rocked downtown Nashville was actually the result of a missile strike. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. We rate thisclaim as FALSE, because it wasn't supported by our research. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. It was an assurance designed to bolster public confidence in the way America votes: Voting machines are not connected to the internet.. "Coincidence? It's the first . See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. The cities of West Bend and Mequon's Dominion machine audit found one vote changed each after their hand counts. Owners of Dominion Voting Systems,(the company many people are accusing of voter fraud) are former executives from Cerebus," another post reads. Staple Street Capital has a managing director and co-founder named Stephen Owens. Select an Infowars smear of Dominion Voting Systems. This is bogus. No available external evidence suggests AT&T was involved in any such audit, either. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. 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.". Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. Thank you for supporting our journalism. The explosion disrupted AT&T wireless and internet services, leading to widespread 911 issues in the Nashville area, The Tennessean reported. Please note t he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. 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. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Nashville's date on June 7 at GEODIS Park will feature Kelsea Ballerini and BRELAND -- and now, The Boykinz. 2023 Tennessee Secretaryof State |Web and Social Media Policies. 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. Three days later, on November 6th, AT&T named William "Bill" E. Kennard Chairman of its Board of Directors. Those networks are among the defendants Coomer is suing. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536. 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. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Full Story. "The loud speaker was to warn people that the bomb was going to go off.. 5:30a on Christmas morning was picked to ensure that nobody was around.. "That's all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation with all of our partners. No one is currently working out of the 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. The RV was parked on Second Avenue in Nashville, outside an AT&Ttransmission building, among other businesses and residences. On Tuesday, Coomer sued the Trump campaign and a number of allies, alleging defamation. 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. Behind it is the notion that if voting systems are not online, hackers will have a harder time compromising them. 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. ( here and here ). 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. Joe Bidens Brother in Law, Steven Owens, is the cofounder of Staple Street Execs along with William Kennard (mentioned above).. There is no evidence that the New York printing company whose building burnt down on Christmas Day was under investigation for printing false ballots. As of Friday, a motive in the bombing remained under investigation by the FBI, the ATF and Metro Nashville police. 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. His top goal right now is pretty simple hoping one day it'll be safe to return home. A spokesperson for Dominion Voting Systems told Reuters via email: Dominion calls 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.. 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. Dominion representatives havealsodenouncedthe conspiracy theory, calling it another "bizarre lie" with "zero credibility.". Then, a plume of smoke rises behind three light poles. Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. provides voting machines and tabulators. 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. 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 question is.. We should be unplugging all of these machines from the internet, Skoglund said. In an interview with Rochester's ABC 13, City Blue Imagingsales manager John Mealy condemned misinformation about the tragedy and dismissed the claims again. More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. 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. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays. That user did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment, either. The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. CLAIM: AT&T got a contract to do a forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems machines and those machines were recently moved . Their evidence: a grainy black-and-white video. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. And thats not what were about. False. The voting rights of more than 55,000 formerly incarcerated Minnesotans were restored on Friday, as Gov. 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. 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. In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. He was present when the bomb went off, and he perished in the bombing," Cochran said. 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. 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 November's election, spread by allies and pro-Trump media. 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. 27postsays. Similar claims have already been debunked by Reuters (here). Speaker 13 . The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle that Warner owned. Whether it's the standard online trolls, voicemails that are left almost on a daily basis, being called a traitor to this country, I can't even begin to describe what effect this has had on my life," he said. The machines America votes on seem to be capturing the interest of some in Congress. 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 . Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . In a Dominion-themed segment, an Infowars host speaking during a November Washington, D.C., rally presaged the January 6 violence by hyping the . 4 min read. This references the claim that supercomputer Hammer and software program Scorecard were used to change votes in Bidens favor in the 2020 Presidential election. Earlier this week, Skoglund showed NBC three election systems were still online even after officials had been told they were vulnerable. More on Dominion:Fact check: Viral photo shows fake logo and slogan for Dominion Voting Systems. ES&S has repeatedly advertised its DS200 with internal modem a critical component to ES&Ss voting systems as being EAC certified when, in fact, it is not, the letter said. Some of the posts attempted to further link AT&T to Dominion by claiming a former owner of the AT&T building was a board member of a firm that owns Dominion. Dominionwas acquired by private equity firm Staple Street Capital, co-founded by financiers Hootan Yaghoobzadeh and StephenOwens, in 2018. The posts all tie AT&T with Dominion, holding the explosion to be alleged proof of conspiracy. There can still be security holes that allow hackers to get into the phone network.. 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. 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. There is no evidence that suggests that the explosion was election-related. 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. "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. EDITORS NOTE (Feb. 7, 2020, 11:15 p.m.): A previous version of this article stated that Kevin Skoglund and his team had found election systems using ES&S scanners with wireless modems connected to the internet in 11 states and the District of Columbia. Immediately, Coomer knew things would blow up. Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine manufacturer founded in Canada, made equipment that is used in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. We should not connect our voting machines directly to the computer networks. The Christmas morning bomb went off on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building. 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. Coomer said the first barb aimed at him came five days after the election. Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T,also told USA TODAY the claims are "not true.". 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. 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. The explosion injured three people and damaged several businesses, including the AT&T Building. The wishes are that I forever have to look over my shoulder," Coomer said. Donate State Editions California Florida 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. (Photo by James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images). With the 2020 presidential election only ten months away, Appel and Skoglund believe all modems can and should be removed from election systems.