Tag: Employee

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Newsmax Apologizes for False Claims of Vote-Rigging by a Dominion Worker

Newsmax Apologizes for False Claims of Vote-Rigging by a Dominion Employee

Conservative Newsmax officially apologized on Friday for spreading unsubstantiated allegations that a Dominion Voting Systems employee tampered with voting machines to sink President Donald J. Trump’s re-election bid last year.

In a statement posted on its website, Newsmax admitted that it had “found no evidence” of the conspiracy theories put forward by Mr Trump’s lawyers, supporters and others that employee Eric Coomer had Dominion voting machines, voting software and the finals manipulated. When voting, the vote counts.

“On behalf of Newsmax, we apologize for any harm our reporting on the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused Dr. Coomer and his family,” the statement said.

Dominion’s director of product strategy and security, Mr. Coomer, sued Newsmax and several pro-Trump figures in December after being flatly defamed in the right-wing media arena. In his lawsuit, which also cites the Trump campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and the One America News Network, Mr. Coomer alleged that he had damaged his reputation, emotional distress, fear, and loss of earnings by making false allegations the entire project would have spread Trump’s world, which he planned to rig the election.

Among the allegations was an allegation that Mr. Coomer said in a phone conversation with anti-fascist activists that he would secure a victory for Joseph R. Biden Jr., the lawsuit said. In fact, Mr Coomer did not attend an “Antifa conference call” and took no action to undermine the presidential election, the lawsuit said.

Even so, hashtags demanding the arrest and exposure of Mr Coomer have been posted on social media. Mr. Trump’s son Eric posted a photo of Mr. Coomer on Twitter, along with the false claim that Mr. Coomer said he would secure a Biden win. Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s attorney, said at a press conference that Mr. Coomer was a “mean, vicious man” who was “close to Antifa,” the lawsuit said.

And Sidney Powell, who was also one of Mr. Trump’s attorneys, replied, “Yeah, that’s right” on Newsmax when asked if Mr. Coomer said, “Don’t worry about President Trump, I did already assured He will lose the election, ”the lawsuit said.

As a result, Mr. Coomer received an onslaught of abusive messages, harassment and death threats under the lawsuit listing Ms. Powell as a defendant.

“These inventions and attacks against me have changed my life, forced me to flee my home, and made my family and loved ones fear for my safety and I fear for theirs,” Coomer wrote in a published in The Denver Post column in December.

In its statement on Friday, Newsmax said it wanted to “clarify” its coverage of Mr Coomer.

“There are several facts that our viewers should know,” the statement said. “Newsmax has found no evidence that Dr. Coomer interfered in any way with Dominion voting machines or voting software, or that Dr. Coomer ever said so. Neither has Newsmax found any evidence that Dr. Coomer has ever taken part in a conversation with members of the ‘Antifa’, nor that he was directly involved in a party political organization. “

Mr. Coomer’s attorney, Steve Skarnulis, said he could not comment on the statement “because the terms of the settlement are strictly confidential.”

Newsmax said it does not comment on any litigation.

“Our statement on the website is consistent with our previous statements that we saw no evidence of software tampering in the 2020 elections,” said a spokesman for Newsmax.

In December, Newsmax released a statement dispensing with a number of false claims about Dominion and Smartmatic, another voting technology company that has been at the center of conspiracy theories. The statement came after Smartmatic said it had sent Newsmax legal notices and letters demanding withdrawals for posting “false and defamatory statements”.

Newsmax’s statement confirmed that “no evidence was presented that Dominion or Smartmatic used software or reprogrammed software that manipulated the 2020 election vote.”

In February, a Newsmax host, Bob Sellers, interrupted Mike Lindell, the executive director of MyPillow and noisy Trump supporter, as he began attacking Dominion on the air. As Mr. Lindell continued speaking, Mr. Sellers read a prepared statement saying that the election results in each state had been confirmed.

“Newsmax accepts the results as legal and final,” said Sellers. “The courts also supported this view.”

Mr. Coomer’s lawsuit, filed in Colorado, differs from a series of lawsuits that Dominion Voting Systems has filed against Fox News, Mr. Giuliani, and Mr. Lindell.

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Politics

Trump marketing campaign chief Paul Manafort worker Kilimnik gave Russia election knowledge

Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort employee Kilimnik gave Russia election data

Konstantin Kilimnik as he appears on an FBI poster.

Source: FBI

A long-time employee of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort, gave Russian intelligence services “sensitive information about election and campaign strategy” during this year’s elections, the US Treasury said on Thursday.

Manafort staffer Konstantin Kilimnik “also tried to further the narrative that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US presidential election,” the Treasury Department said as the Biden government launched new sanctions against Russia, Kilimnik and others announced.

These sanctions relate in part to alleged efforts by Russia to influence the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort arrives in the U.S. District Court in Washington on June 15, 2018 to be indicted on a third superseded indictment against him by special adviser Robert Mueller for witness manipulation.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

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Business

Pinduoduo Worker Deaths Ignites China Debate Over Work

Pinduoduo Employee Deaths Ignites China Debate Over Work

Lyu Xiaolin, an employee of a large Chinese tech company, said she had discussed the Pinduoduo deaths at length with colleagues who agreed that the idea of ​​unbearable work pressure was all too familiar.

“The conclusion was that this is too terrible and we need to cherish our own lives,” she said. “We should make sure we leave work earlier in the future.”

She herself had changed roles in her company, which she did not want to identify for fear of retaliation because her previous work often meant that she had to work until 11 or 12 a.m., sometimes even until 3 a.m. She was looking for therapy to alleviate the psychological stress.

China’s hypercompetitive work culture, especially in the tech world, has been a frequent cause of concern and criticism in recent years. While many once celebrated growth at all costs as the engine of China’s development, young workers have increasingly complained about the cost to their health and personal relationships.

This dissatisfaction clearly exploded in 2019 when simple technicians organized a rare online protest against the so-called “996” culture – working days that last six days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. – and increased awareness of China’s labor law, the working days of more than eight hours without overtime pay is generally prohibited. However, companies insist that the long hours are voluntary and the authorities, aware of unofficial mobilization, censored much of the discussion about the movement. The internet went on.

The debate has broken out again.

On January 3rd, an anonymous user of Maimai, a professional networking platform, wrote that a friend of Pinduoduo died unexpectedly and blamed the company. The post gained traction, and Pinduoduo confirmed that a worker surnamed Zhang died on December 29th on her way home.

There was no public explanation for the cause of death, but many online have linked it to overwork. Users found that Ms. Zhang had been working on a new online grocery product that Pinduoduo had been promoting, and that the company’s executive director, Colin Huang, had just been named China’s second richest person.

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Business

Tony Robbins Accused of Discriminating In opposition to Worker Who Obtained Covid

Tony Robbins Accused of Discriminating Against Employee Who Got Covid

Tony Robbins, the life coach and motivational speaker, discriminated against one of his co-workers by refusing to give her the housing she needed to work from home after contracting a debilitating case of Covid-19 in the spring. This resulted in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

The lawsuit also alleges that Mr Robbins falsely claimed to have helped the worker recover by asking one of his friends to intervene in her care after she was put on a ventilator in a medically induced coma.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, accuses Mr. Robbins; his firm Robbins Research International; and his wife, Bonnie P. Robbins, known as Sage, for violating several disability laws, including the Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities.

The employee Despina Kosta worked for Mr. Robbins for 18 years – the first nine in Europe and the last nine in the USA, where she worked in New York as a sales manager or “personal results specialist”. She was one of the company’s top-rated salespeople, according to the lawsuit.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the lawsuit said, Mr. Robbins downplayed the severity of the coronavirus and urged his team to continue selling in-person events. Ms Kosta claims she has raised concerns about the approach but has been ignored.

In April, Ms. Kosta, 52, developed a high fever and had Covid-19. She was placed in a medically induced coma from April 12 to May 1 while being treated first at New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital and then New York Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical Center.

After that, Ms. Kosta made efforts to recover and found it difficult to walk or even hold a cell phone, she said.

Ms. Kosta tried to return to work on July 1 and asked her supervisor and a human resources officer if she could work “just a few hours” a day while she recovered and regained her strength, she said in an interview Wednesday evening . “They said no to that,” she said.

Ms. Kosta said that since July she has no longer had access to her work email or the company’s database, which stores information about the clients she serves. She said she couldn’t work without this access. Ms. Kosta said she made about $ 250,000 annually.

J. Christopher Albanese, a lawyer representing Ms. Kosta, said the company did not quit her, but the lockout made her unable to do her job.

Updated

Apr. 24, 2020 at 12:43 am ET

Jennifer Connelly, a spokeswoman for Mr. Robbins, said the allegations in the lawsuit were “ridiculous and unfounded”.

She said that Ms. Kosta “remains a current employee” and that the company has “provided all necessary accommodation” and “continues to pay the full cost of her health insurance even though the legal obligation to do so ended in June”.

Ms. Kosta also said that comments from Mr. Robbins on a podcast caused her distress.

On the podcast recorded in May, Mr. Robbins described a worker who had a cough, a 102-degree fever and “became very anxious.”

“And so she went to the hospital and then she felt short of breath from fear and hyperventilated a little, so she was immediately put on a ventilator,” he said.

Mr Robbins said after finding out the clerk had fallen into a coma he called a doctor friend who knew people in the hospital. He said he asked his friend to call the hospital and the friend finally got through to the night doctor who eased the pressure on the ventilator.

“As a result, she opened her eyes four or five days later,” Robbins said, claiming that the episode showed that ventilators, at least with too much pressure, appeared to “do harm”.

In July, Ms Kosta said she was contacted directly by a customer in Poland who said he listened to Mr Robbins’ podcast and understood that Mr Robbins had described Ms. Kosta.

Ms. Kosta listened to the podcast and said Wednesday evening that Mr. Robbins’ claims of interfering with her treatment were completely false. She said she was ashamed because he described her as a “hysterical woman, weakling”.

The comments were not the first time Mr. Robbins’ remarks about a woman had been scrutinized. In April 2018, Mr. Robbins apologized for women using the #MeToo movement to “gain meaning and safety by attacking and destroying other people”.

Ms. Connelly, the spokesperson for Mr. Robbins, said the organization had raised concerns about Ms. Kosta’s condition. “When we were informed that Ms. Kosta had contracted Covid-19 and was hospitalized, Mr. Robbins and his organization made inquiries with compassion and support for her,” she said.

She added: “Any suggestion by Ms. Kosta that RRI is unprofessional or does not comply with applicable law in her situation or in the normal course of business is obviously wrong.”