terri mccullough dominion voting systems
[117] Citing sources at Fox News, speaking under condition of anonymity, they reported "Anchors and executives have been preparing for depositions and have been forced to hand over months of private emails and text messages to Dominion. Lindell told reporters that he was unconcerned with the ruling as "I've got lawyers doing more important things like removing these machines from every state. "[117] While Fox continues to claim that any statements made on air were covered by the First Amendment, and as such can not be considered defamation, the Times reported that "Fox has also been searching for evidence that could, in effect, prove the Dominion conspiracy theories weren't really conspiracy theories. Dominion's attorneys have deposed people throughout the Fox hierarchy, from junior producers to stars, to executives, to most recently, controlling owner Rupert Murdoch, who sat for questioning under oath at the Fox Studio lot last Thursday and Friday. The lawyers contend the supposedly defamatory statements often involved hyperbolic characterizations or mere opinions. President Trump has openly criticized Dominion as he attempts to challenge voting results across the country, alleging widespread voter fraud and tweeting about the company Friday afternoon.. Problems in Michigan, Georgia. Im going to ask for this information on the basis of your report within 10 days, he said. [37] Currently, Dominion provides optical scan paper ballot tabulation systems for provincial elections, including Ontario and New Brunswick. "[69], On October 7, 2021, CNN reported that after examining over 2,000 pages of documents provided to the court, that they had found that in sworn depositions to the court Giuliani stated that he had spent less than an hour reviewing allegations against Coomer and "didn't have the time"[70] to fact check them before taking them public in a November 19, 2020 press conference where he called Coomer "a vicious, vicious man" who is "close to Antifa" and is "completely warped and he specifically says that they're going to fix this election". The software allows for various settings, including cumulative voting, where voters can apply multiple votes on one or more candidates, and Ranked Order Voting, where voters rank candidates in order of choice and the system shifts votes as candidates are eliminated. The News Corp. building in New York City, home to Fox News. The News Corp. building in New York City, home to Fox News. [2] Its name derives from the Dominion Elections Act. [64][65] Eric Coomer, Dominion's director of product strategy and security, went into hiding soon after the election due to fear for his and his family's safety. The letter to Carone asserted that, despite Carone presenting herself as a Dominion insider, she was "hired through a staffing agency for one day to clean glass on machines and complete other menial tasks". )[111][112][113][114], Media outlets such as the Guardian mentioned the lawsuit against Fox News in late July, when excerpts of Jared Kushner's book Breaking History were released. They have not had anybody hold them accountable even on the most basic matters.. [98] Angelo Carusone of Media Matters for America told reporters that as 90% of OAN's revenue came from DirecTV that the company will not survive through Dominion's lawsuit against it, but will "be wiped out from the litigation costs. And criticism of how the government conducted a presidential election is the highest bar protecting the First Amendment right to criticize such action. Dominion's legal team is counting on a rich reservoir of material from their questioning of Fox journalists and executives under oath and from mining their emails, texts, and other communications. Because it is privately owned, ES&S is not legally obligated to reveal. Here are four key things to know about Dominion, the voting machine manufacturer that is causing such a stir. USA TODAY, Jan. 23, "Dominion Voting Systems files $1.3B defamation suit against ex-Trump . Officials in Maryland and North Carolina have started questioning voting machine makers about potential foreign ownership. If what they are saying is true, our state has blown this election," the man said. No such fraud was found to have taken place. This month, a group of Democratic politicians sent the private equity firms that own the major election vendors a letter asking them to disclose a range of such information, including ownership, finances and research investments. Click under Exam Date for examiner reports. The journalist is asking all the right questions. "They instantly didn't stand up to the light of day.". The quality assurance lab at Election Systems and Software LLC. [117] Fox's recent replacement of its outside legal team with one of the nation's most prominent trial lawyers was seen as "a sign that executives believe that the chances the case is headed to trial have increased". Plaintiff's attorneys were ordered to pay $180,000 for the defendants' attorneys' fees, with the judge finding that the lawsuit was filed "in bad faith" and made frivolous arguments. Status. Lindell had recently bragged publicly of disregarding an FBI request to not disclose the seizure of his phone in an unrelated criminal case involving Tina Peters, a Republican Mesa County clerk who was charged in engaging in a data breach of Dominion Voting System machines. ImageCast Evolution is an optical scan tabulator designed for use in voting precincts that scans and tabulates marked paper ballots. In June, he wrote an op-ed asking Congress for more regulation, which would include requirements for paper backups of individual votes, mandatory post-election audits and more resources for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to speed improvements. Following an onslaught of misinformation about the software company's reliability, Dominion released a statementthat includes information about the company's ownership, as well as facts that debunk various other conspiracies. Additionally, no foreign national or foreign government has a stake in the company. "[117] Looking for connections to the Venezuelan dictator who died in 2013, lawyers for Fox in court filings have asked Dominion to turn over any internal communications going back over a decade that include any of the words "Hugo", "Chavez", "tampered", "backdoor", "stolen", or "Trump". Amid claims by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that this year's election might be "rigged," some people took this as concrete evidence that Soros, a supporter of Hillary Clinton, would. 5.5.3.0002. 67% of employees would recommend working at Dominion Voting Systems to a friend and 54% have a positive outlook for the business. Fox News' legal team does not defend them as correct. Yet in supplementary public filings, the contours of the Fox team's reasoning emerge more sharply in focus. They never showed any evidence, but that didn't stop. Despite motions by the defendants to dismiss the lawsuits, judges ruled that the cases against Fox News, Lindell, and MyPillow could proceed. On Nov. 7, 2020, the Associated Press, the New York Times, Fox News . [7][8][9] Within days after the election, the Trump campaign had prepared an internal memo on several of the allegations against Dominion, and found them to be baseless. [70][75], On April 5, 2022, Coomer filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court against MYPillow CEO Mike Lindell, along with his company, and his media platform Frankspeech for spreading the unsupported Oltmann claims and having "intentionally and persistently defamed Coomer as a 'traitor'". [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, March 04, 1854, Image 4, brought to you by Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and the National Digital Newspaper Program. That has led to calls for ES&S and its competitors, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and Austin, Texas-based Hart Intercivic, to reveal details about their ownership and the origins of the parts, some of which come from China, that make up their machines. Fox News' attorneys have set out the starkest defense yet against the accusation the network defamed an election-technology company when it broadcast false claims that the company had cheated then-President Donald Trump of victory in the 2020 election. The walls were decorated with images of the Constitution and inspirational messages about quality control. There is no evidence that Terri McCullough, Pelosi's current chief of staff, holds an executive-level position at the company. The issue took on greater urgency after the FBI disclosed in July 2018 that a Russian oligarch had invested in a Maryland election services firm. Recounts were held in 7 of 49 ridings and the results were upheld with variations of 13votes per candidate per riding. 'Crazy Stuff. Dominion filed a $1.3 billion defamation suit against MyPillow and CEO Mike Lindell in February. She has kept a report on a theoretical voting machine flaw authored by a respected computer researchersecret since last summer, citing concerns that releasing the report would fuel conspiracy. [69] Among those named in the lawsuit were the Trump campaign, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, and Colorado businessman and activist Joseph Oltmann. The letter identified two passive investors, Nancy McCarthy and Kenneth Stinson, who own stakes of more than 5 percent in McCarthy Group. Facing a defamation lawsuit, conservative television outlet Newsmax on Friday apologized to Dominion Voting Systems security director Eric Coomer . Unfortunately, the lies have continued." (The Murdochs and Fox refused to reverse the projection despite intense pressure from Trump and his campaign.) [15][16] After Dominion filed its lawsuit against Powell, One America News Network (OANN) removed all references to Dominion and Smartmatic from its website, though without issuing public retractions. The way people vote is managed by a couple of entities that people dont know a lot about, and that creates risks for the country, he said. Thomas Wienner, a retired corporate litigator based in Michigan who is following the case at NPR's request, says he appreciates the logic of the Fox team in seeking to undercut each element of Dominion's claims. [77], In December 2020, defamation attorneys representing Dominion sent letters to Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and former Dominion contractor and self-described whistleblower Mellissa Carone, advising them to preserve all records relating to the company and demanding Giuliani and Carone cease making defamatory claims about the company, warning that legal action was "imminent". IE 11 is not supported. ", "The overall impression you get, when you read the omitted text, is that these people were night after night, day after day, promoting theories that were ridiculous and that had been rejected by the courts," Wienner says. This is false. [11][12] Smartmatic also demanded a retraction from Newsmax, which had also promoted baseless conspiracy allegations about the company and Dominion, and on December 21 a Newsmax host acknowledged the network had no evidence the companies had a relationship, adding "No evidence has been offered that Dominion or Smartmatic used software or reprogrammed software that manipulated votes in the 2020 election." [17][18] During subsequent months, Dominion filed suits seeking $1.6 billion in damages from each of Fox News, Newsmax, OANN and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne,[19] while also suing Mike Lindell and his corporation, MyPillow. "[83], On February 16, 2021, Dominion announced that they would be filing a lawsuit against Lindell in response to OANN airing a program by Lindell titled Absolute Proof that repeated his false claims about the 2020 election. [101] As evidence of harm, he stated: "MyPillow employees have been subjected to ridicule in their personal lives, and death threats necessitating protection from local law enforcement employees are subjected to daily hateful and barbaric calls, emails, and comments on the company's social media platforms. [31], ImageCast X is described as an accessible ballot-marking device that allows a voter to use various methods to input their choices. Judge Nichols set aside time for the parties to designate documents for confidentiality before further action would be taken. [1] This equipment includes the DVS ImageCast Evolution (ICE), ImageCast X (ICX), and ImageCast Central (ICC). [49], Following the 2020 United States presidential election, Donald Trump, his attorneys, and other right-wing personalities amplified the unfounded rumors originated by the proponents of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems had been compromised, supposedly resulting in millions of votes intended for Trump either being deleted or going to rival Joe Biden. Fixed: Release in which this issue/RFE has been fixed.The release containing this fix may be available for download as an Early Access Release or a General Availability Release. Many were unraveled in real time during the 2020 election season often by Fox's own reporters. [117] They reported that sources "expected Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, who own and control the Fox Corporation, to sit for depositions as soon as this month". Apparently speaking about the ICE machine, one source responded that this was incorrect, and that Dominion voting machines are only a "ballot marking device" system in which the voter deposits their printed ballot into a box for counting. And he says Fox well may succeed in convincing the court to knock out some of the claimed instances of defamatory statements to be put in front of the jury. "[101] The Daily Beast reported that Lindell had hired veteran First Amendment lawyer Nathan Lewin, and was also receiving informal advice from Alan Dershowitz, who stated "My role is to come up with ideas as they pertain to the First Amendment. Elections New Brunswick officially suspended the results reporting count with 17 ridings still undeclared. [45], In June 2018, Elections Ontario used Dominion's tabulator machines for the provincial election and deployed them at 50percent of polling stations. Outside of Staple Street Capital and the Dominion's CEO, noinvestor owns more than a 5% stake of the company. In countering Dominion, Fox's lawyers offer a chart of offending statements and what it termed the "omitted context" that could explain why the material was newsworthy, why the Fox hosts' treatment of it was responsible, and then why it was not defamatory. [7][9] On November 12, 2020, CISA released a statement that confirmed "there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised". Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. Vote Smart provides free, unbiased, in-depth information about current officials, candidates, issues, legislation, and voting. Election technology company Dominion sues Giuliani for $1.3 billion over 'Big Lie' about election fraud. [93], On August 4, 2021, a federal judge granted a sanctions motion against Gary Fielder and Ernest John Walker, the attorneys that filed suit against Dominion, Facebook, and others claiming fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The sworn deposition of an anonymous witness who said he was a former member of the Venezuelan presidential security team and accused Dominion of committing election fraud in the U.S. All of these allegations have been disproven. In mid-December 2020, Perez appeared on Fox as an expert for an awkward segment in which he was interviewed by an off-camera producer to debunk claims made on the network about a second voting technology company called Smartmatic. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tapped Terri McCullough to be her new chief of staff in the speaker's office, the first woman in modern times to serve in the . Create Comparison. Det skriver Hans Rustad her. Beyond this video, other posts on social media have linkedChvezand Dominion. They attempted to remove their office number from the building directory and even have a guard outside. (A few days after the election, as Fox has noted, anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum pushed McDaniel repeatedly for any proof of her insinuations.). The host further acknowledged that Smartmatic is not owned by any foreign entity, nor is it connected to George Soros, as had been alleged. ES&S invited NBC News journalists into its headquarters, the first time it has done so for a national news organization. [57], In a related hoax, Dennis Montgomery, a software designer with a history of making dubious claims,[58] asserted that a government supercomputer program was used to switch votes from Trump to Biden on voting machines. ES&S said it conducts quality assurance tests on the machines. [32], Dominion is the second-largest seller of voting machines in the United States. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. Thank you for supporting our journalism. [2] It develops software in offices in the United States, Canada, and Serbia. Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. [97], On April 20, 2022, Judge Nichols ruled that Dominion's defamation lawsuit against Byrne could move forward denying his motion to dismiss the case. When contacted by USA TODAY via Facebook Messengerwith a request for evidence of claims in the video, Community Tap News replied, "My source is Anthony Kern. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. He held that Dominion had shown that the company's chairman, Rupert Murdoch, and his son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, may have acted with "actual malice" by directing the network to broadcast the conspiracy theory despite having been notified that it was false as a business calculation in order to stem plummeting viewership. NBC News examined publicly available online shipping records for ES&S for the past five years and found that many parts, including electronics and tablets, were made in China and the Philippines, raising concerns about technology theft or sabotage. The initial cost of the . Instead, its filings suggest that the Fox stars relaying them on the air reflected an appropriate journalistic response to stark claims about the functioning of American democracy, as they involve "questions to a newsmaker on newsworthy subjects" or they "accurately report on pending allegations. [61], The disinformation campaign against Dominion led to their employees being stalked, harassed, and receiving death threats. President-elect Joe Biden officially secured the presidency after the Electoral College met to give him and Vice President-elect Harris 306 votes. It has . Such characterizations of the allegedly defamatory statements further support defendant's position that reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact but view them only as claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process. [58][59] Asserting that Krebs's analysis was "highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud", Trump fired him by tweet days later. USA TODAY, March 26, "Dominion Voting sues Fox for $1.6 billion over false 2020 election fraud claims". Of the approximately 115 statements on Fox by its hosts and guests that Dominion contends are defamatory, Fox News wrote in its filing, "there is not a single statement for which Dominion can prove every element of its claim for defamation.". [42] There were some problems with the reporting of tabulator counts after the election, and at 10:45p.m. On November 8th, the AP reported that the Michigan. In the video, the man acknowledges that Chvez is dead but claims his family still owns Dominion and that Chvez started the software company. ES&S had just acquired Premier from Diebold and was required to sell off Premier by the United States Department of Justice over anti-trust concerns. A new level of scrutiny of the election system, spurred by Russias interference in the 2016 election, has put ES&S in the political spotlight. New questions about voting machines as 2020 election approaches, a letter asking them to disclose a range of such information, invested in a Maryland election services firm. Thats starting to change. The claims about interference and fraud from the campaign's supporters range from Sharpies invalidating conservative voter's ballotsin Arizona to Hugo Chvez the deceased former president of Venezuela owning part of Dominion Voting Systems, whose machines are used in 28 states.
