ItalyGate: Debunking the “Debunkers”

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Mike Dakkak1 Comment on ItalyGate: Debunking the “Debunkers”

Updated Jan 20, 2021 at 2:30pm

Breaking through the complete mainstream media blackout on the allegations of election interference coming out of Italy, are a couple of articles that have attempted to “debunk” those claims. Upon further review the “fact-checking” is found to be lacking.

A careful review of a USA Today article reveals very little “fact-checking” actually being done. The article claims the publication reached out to Maria Zack, Chairwoman of NationsInAction.org, a government accountability organization spearheading the efforts to bring the evidence to light to present to the American people.

In an exclusive interview with ITN this week, Zack says that claim is false – USA Today never contacted her for comment. That is something Zack finds perplexing.

“I welcome them to call me because strangers across the planet have been calling so I’m not that hard to find,” she said.

The article seems to summarizes the ItalyGate allegations being made and then conflates claims those claims with other, separate claims of election fraud alleged to have taken place. The article then states those separate allegations of election fraud have been deemed false.

“In Georgia, officials performed a weeklong statewide audit of paper ballots that affirmed a narrow victory for Biden, per USA Today,” the author Camille Caldera writes. The audit referenced in the link however, despite many claims in the mainstream media, was not an audit at all. It was simply a recount. There was no attempt to match absentee ballots with the envelopes and signatures they came in – the main source of the irregularities critics point out.

“A hand tally of every vote cast for president in Antrim County, Michigan, also confirmed that its machine-tabulated results were correct, per the Detroit Free Press. Out of 15,962 votes cast, the hand recount showed a net gain of 12 votes for Trump, who won the county but lost the state,” Caldera writes.

Antrim County results actually reveal a vote-switch of more than 6,000 votes from Joe Biden to President Trump. This is a story ITN has covered extensively here, here and here.

The hand recount results referenced by Caldera are the results after the software “error” was corrected. Had the alleged vote-manipulation not been discovered the results would have certified Joe Biden as the winner of Antrim County by over 3,000 votes.

Caldera also writes that General Claudio Graziano, a former Italian Chief of Defense, is not on the board of Leonardo SpA, as has been claimed by NIA. (Leonardo is a billion-dollar Italian defense contractor accused of facilitating manipulation of votes by using its hardware.)

That misstatement is something Zack acknowledges. She has since corrected the statement to reflect Graziano has served in one of Leonardo’s predecessors. (The company has changed names numerous times over its history through mergers and acquisitions, seemingly coinciding with scandals and investigations that have plagued the company).

ITN reached out to Graziano, who is currently Chairman of the European Union Military Committee, several weeks ago. Through a spokesperson Graziano denied being affiliated with Leonardo.

ITN reached out again to Graziano this week however, asking for confirmation on whether Graziano has ever served on a board or been affiliated with any of Leonardo’s predecessors (Finmeccanica or Alenia Aermacchi, for example). We have not received a response to that inquiry.

Caldera also writes that claims proponents of ItalyGate make that the Italian news media has covered the scandal are false, citing the lack of press coverage in Italian feeds of the Associated Press, Reuters, and Sky News as proof.

Caldera doesn’t mention the article that ran in Italy’s La Verita on December 1, 2020 however, titled: “Gli avvocati di Trump non hanno dubbi: Una manina italiana nei brogli pro Biden,” or “Trump’s Lawyers Have No Doubts: ‘An Italian Hand in the Pro-Biden Brogli.’”

Brogli is Italian for fraud.


Curiously, it was just four days after that story ran that Arturo D’Elia, one of the main witnesses to the ItalyGate plot, was arrested on hacking charges of Leonardo’s internal computer systems – a crime that allegedly took place three years prior to that arrest.

A Reuters fact-check article claims the company has spoken with D’Elia’s attorney who quoted his client as denying any involvement in the plot.

Zack says she has not reached out to D’Elia’s attorney and has no plans to. Instead, she says she brought in one of Italy’s top constitutional attorneys to review D’Elia’s claims, Alfio D’Urso. D’Urso would subsequently sign an affidavit attesting to the veracity of D’Elia’s claims and release a video version of that affidavit as well. (A copy of that affidavit was delivered to Congress, Zack says.)

USA Today makes no mention of that affidavit while Reuters simply says it has not reviewed the document and is unable to confirm its authenticity.

There are also claims voter-software maker Scytl played a role in election manipulation. Those claims center on Scytl servers located in Frankfurt, Germany. Reuters claims Scytl does not maintain offices in Germany, but an election “success case” report on Scytl’s website identifies Frankfurt as the site of an “emergency back-up center” for data.

Additionally, neither USA Today nor Reuters confirms whether efforts were made to contact Stefano Serafini or the U.S. State Department. Serafini is a State Dept. employee Zack says resigned a day before the election to help run the operation out of Italy. We find that to be a glaring omission.

ITN has tried for weeks to reach Serafini and has reached out to the U.S. State Department several times, most recently to simply ask for confirmation on whether any employee named Stefano Serafini resigned from the State Department in November or whether they are still employed. We have received no reply.

Zack says more evidence is coming out and is excited about the level of support she is now receiving from officials in the U.S. government. Importantly, she also says she welcomes the review of her claims and research into their accuracy.

“We need volunteers at our organization. Those volunteers, we want them to help educate the elected officials across America and provide these details. To do the research, dig in. If we have something inaccurate, we want people to help us correct it. We’re a tiny non-profit, but we want to be 100% accurate and provide full transparency,” she said.

1 thought on “ItalyGate: Debunking the “Debunkers””

  1. Dear ITN Staff,
    For some time I have been following the stories of a former Serbian politician named Srjdan Nogo who has written a number of articles about how Serbia and Soros are the heart of the election fraud we witnessed in 2020. He is in Wikipedia and also on Twitter and he goes into great detail! In an interview by Serbian TV he names names and he indicates a coup would have been tried if Trump had not lost the election. I have tried to get verification of this story. I gave it to Great Game India and they printed it immediately. You should check out other stories by them on Dominion, which is banned in India.

    Here is the url and i will send you other articles by Nogo if you are interested.
    A Stolen Country – The US Elections And What Comes Next
    January 1, 2023 https://greatgameindia.com/stolen-us-elections/
    Please let me know what you find so that I can push it here. You should also know that there is a Radio Free Europe site with a wonderful picture of Biden with Serbian president Vucic and a claim that Biden visited Serbia no less than five times.
    Sincerely,

    Leni Valenta [Email Withheld for Privacy]

    Reply

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