"And I probably will. In a Dominion-themed segment, an Infowars host speaking during a November Washington, D.C., rally presaged the January 6 violence by hyping the . Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. A Dominion voting machine in Georgia. The claim: Dominion Voting Systems is tied up in the Nashville bombing, based on the affected AT&T building's ownership and that the cellular company was contracted to audit Dominion's. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Earlier this week, Skoglund showed NBC three election systems were still online even after officials had been told they were vulnerable. "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?,"onefrom Dec. 26 reads. 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. 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. Some just say AT&T had a contract to conduct a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems. No one is currently working out of the building. As of Friday, a motive in the bombing remained under investigation by the FBI, the ATF and Metro Nashville police. Representatives for companies involved say there is no truth to the claims. Full Story. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. 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. He also serves on 16 boards and commissions, on two of which he is the presiding member. ", 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.". 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). "Bombing investigations can take years," Darrell DeBusk, an FBI spokesman based inTennessee, told The Tennessean. The company recently threatened a number of groups repeating the claims with lawsuits, including One America News Network, Newsmax and Fox News. NBC News asked the two other major manufacturers how many of their tabulators with modems were currently in use. The explosion in the heart of Nashville injured three people and damaged businesses including an AT&T switching center, disrupting mobile, internet and TV services across central Tennessee and parts of four other states (here). "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. This is bogus. US Elections were November 3, 2020. Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine manufacturer founded in Canada, made equipment that is used in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. The bomb squad was en route. 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. 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. The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies. Posts online claim that the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville was an attempt to cover up election fraud because AT&T was conducting an audit of Dominion Voting Systems machines and that the equipment was recently relocated to the companys building that was damaged in the blast. Dominion was founded in the wake of a different controversy: the failure of punch-card voting machines and their infamous hanging chads in the 2000 election. 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 . We rate thisclaim as FALSE, because it wasn't supported by our research. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle that Warner owned. APS ASSESSMENT: False. Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. Coomer said in addition to his own information, the personal addresses of everyone from his parents and siblings to his ex-girlfriends have been posted online. By the time the news conference occurred on Nov. 19, Mr. Trump's campaign had already prepared an internal memo on many of the outlandish claims about the company, Dominion Voting Systems, and. (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.). But companies that specialize in the subject said it is getting exponentially worse. The posts all tie AT&T with Dominion, holding the explosion to be alleged proof of conspiracy. 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 . causing widespread communications outages. 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. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. 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. Similar claims have already been debunked by Reuters (here). 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. The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. 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. For Coomer, that means his life may be forever changed. There is no reason to suppose that it would be likely, or even possible, that these buildings, would be used to audit voting machines. 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 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.. CNN didnt report that Anthony Warner, the person authorities have identified as the bomber, died from COVID-19. 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. 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. 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. 2023 Tennessee Secretaryof State |Web and Social Media Policies. John Bazemore/AP Spokespersons for both Dominion Voting Systems and AT&T told Reuters by email that claims that Dominion voting machines related to the election were held in the building were untrue. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. A widely sharedpost on Facebook alleges that four days before the bombing, a rumor circulated that AT&T was awarded a contract to audit Dominion's voting machines, which were supposedly being sent to Nashville. Owens, the other co-founder of Staple Street Capital,did not work for Cerberus, despite the post's claim. The explosion disrupted AT&T wireless and internet services, leading to widespread 911 issues in the Nashville area, The Tennessean reported. Coomer said the first barb aimed at him came five days after the election. Skoglund says those include the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. Similar claims have been shared in hundreds of public posts, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. On January 8, it filed a defamation suit against pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, seeking $1.3 billion in damages. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. The report claims the results of the election in . The post implies that the bombing was an attempt to stop the audit and cover up voter fraud. Those networks are among the defendants Coomer is suing. We should be unplugging all of these machines from the internet, Skoglund said. Thats an interesting coincidence.. More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. Reuters Fact Check previously debunked this claim here . Warner died in the blast, according to authorities. The West Bend clerk wrote, "The wrong marking device was used to mark the . Tre Hargett was elected by the Tennessee General Assembly to serve as Tennessees 37th secretary of state in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, 2017, and 2021. 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). Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? He has independently become part of the broader Dominion conspiracy theories, though, with some claiming he's Joe Biden's brother-in-law. Staple Street Capital took part in a deal with management to acquire Dominion in 2018 (here and here). In February, Dominion filed a lawsuit against Lindell and his company, alleging he defamed them by repeatedly claiming to have evidence their voting machines fraudulently flipped votes. 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. The cities of West Bend and Mequon's Dominion machine audit found one vote changed each after their hand counts. "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.