After being accused of election fraud and participating in a foreign interference scheme by members of President Donald Trump’s legal team, Dominion Voting Systems again asserted that it has no ties to the Venezuelan and Cuban regimes.
Sidney Powell, a member of the campaign’s legal defense, said on Thursday that Dominion has links to Smartmatic, which was used in Venezuelan elections under the regime of Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013.
“What we are really dealing with here and uncovering more by the day is the massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba and likely China in the interference with our elections here in the United States,” Powell said on Thursday, pointing to an affidavit of an alleged whistleblower who claimed to have worked for the Venezuelan military under Chavez and in Chavez’s security detail.
“The Dominion Voting Systems, the Smartmatic technology software, and the software that goes in other computerized voting systems here as well, not just Dominion, were created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chavez to make sure he never lost an election after one constitutional referendum came out the way he did not want it to come out,” Powell said.
But Dominion, in response, said it is part of “the latest flood of absurdities is deeply concerning, not just for Dominion but also for our dedicated state and local partners and the electoral process on whole.”
“Dominion is plainly a non-partisan American company with no ties to Venezuela or Cuba,” their statement continued. “Vote counts are conducted by county and state election officials, not by Dominion, or any other election technology company—our systems support tabulation by those officials alone.”
Smartmatic and Dominion have said they have no ties to one another. But Dominion, which has its U.S. headquarters in Denver, said it purchased assets from Sequoia Voting Systems in 2010, a company sold by Smartmatic in 2007.
According to the affidavit signed by the alleged ex-Venezuelan military official, “I was witness to the creation and operation of a sophisticated electronic voting system that permitted the leaders of the Venezuelan government to manipulate the tabulation of votes for national and local elections and select the winner of those elections in order to gain and maintain their power.”
It added, “From that point on, Chavez never lost any election. In fact, he was able to ensure wins for himself, his party, Congress persons and mayors from townships.”
The person furthermore claimed that “software and fundamental design of the electronic electoral system and software of Dominion and other election tabulating companies relies upon software that is a descendant of the Smartmatic Electoral Management System.” The person added, “in short, the Smartmatic software is in the DNA of every vote tabulating company’s software and system.”
The Epoch Times hasn’t been able to independently verify the claims in the affidavit.
Chavez and successor Nicolas Maduro have both long been accused by human rights organizations and opposition politicians of rigging elections to stay in power while creating the appearance that Venezuela is a legitimate democracy.
Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.
