OK. Here is what the article says:
Does the Dominion Voting Systems organization have ties to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, George Soros and the Clinton Foundation?
CLAIM
Attorney Sidney Powell claimed that widely used voting machines from the election technology company Dominion Voting Systems featured software created "at the direction" of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to swing his own election results, and that the company has ties to the Clinton Foundation and Soros.
This is false
The machines can be linked to Soros, if not tied to Soros.
EVIDENCE
None of this is true. Dominion has no corporate ties with Venezuela, the Clinton Foundation or Soros.
True. No corporate ties but still there are links.
Powell and other Trump allies have tried to tie Dominion, which sells election technology that was used in more than two dozen states, to another voting company called Smartmatic. During the 2020 election, Smartmatic's technology was used only in Los Angeles County, and not in any swing states, a spokesperson for the company told CNN.
Smartmatic and Dominion are linked in spite of what Possibly corrupt Dominion officials claim but do not prove.
Smartmatic was founded in Florida by two Venezuelans, and did provide election technology to the Venezuelan government. Powell has posted on social media a purported affidavit from an unnamed Venezuelan official claiming Smartmatic software was used to change votes in the country. But those claims have no evidence, and there's no reason to believe the company's software was created to make sure Chavez "never lost an election," as Powell claimed. The company
actually spoke out to accuse the Venezuelan government of voter fraud in 2017.
Smartmatic machines were corrupt. That is not debatable. Not only that but the question of ownership pof Smartmatic machines is unclear due to deliberate corporate secrecy. Here is more evidence of shadowy ownership and links tying voting machine operators together:
https://www.visiontimes.com/2020/12...ajor-issues-with-smartmatic-and-dominion.html
A 2012 filing of the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado stated that Sequoia Voting Systems was “indirectly owned by Venezeulan citizens” before restructuring into a shell company to evade US regulators. Smartmatic, the software company that operates Dominion voting machines, acquired Sequoia in 2005.
Tracy Beanz, editor-in-chief of UncoverDC, posted screenshots of the filing on her Twitter account exposing Sequoia’s past.
The Objection to Smartmatic’s Motions for Authority and Standing to Prosecute Causes of Action was between SVS Holdings and Smartmatic USA Corporation. SVS Holdings was a shell company with no employees; its sole purpose was to hold shares of Sequoia.
The bigger issue with this claim is that there is no evidence that Dominion machines used Smartmatic software, as Powell suggested -- and thus zero connection between Venezuela and the company whose voting machines were actually used in the swing states Trump is focusing on. Both Dominion and Smartmatic have said that they are competitors with no corporate links.
The origin of the claim linking the companies seems to be a convoluted corporate transfer: In 2005, Smartmatic acquired a company called Sequoia Voting Systems, but sold it in 2007 after questions from members of Congress over the acquisition by a company linked to Venezuela. Three years later, Dominion, which was founded as a Canadian company but is now majority owned by Americans, acquired Sequoia. In addition, Smartmatic licensed Dominion machines for use in the Philippines in 2009, but the contract ended in a lawsuit, Dominion said in its statement.
Neither Dominion nor Smartmatic have corporate ties to the Clintons or Soros, a major Democratic donor. While Dominion did agree to donate its technology to "emerging democracies" as part of a program run by the Clinton Foundation in 2014, according to the foundation's website, Dominion said in its statement that it has "no company ownership relationships" with the foundation. And while the chairman of the board of Smartmatic's parent company is also on the board of a foundation run by Soros, Open Society Foundations, Soros himself is not involved in either company.
TAGS
Disinformation
