OAN’s “expert mathematician” actually builds swings

• In January, One America News featured an “expert mathematician” in an interview.
• The “expert” claimed to have uncovered evidence that the 2020 election was rigged against Donald Trump.
• He’s actually a swing installer on Long Island, according to a new Dominion lawsuit.

Right-wing media organization One America News has portrayed a Long Island swing installer as an “expert mathematician” who claimed to uncover evidence the 2020 election was rigged, according to a new lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems .

One America News’ Christina Bobb interviewed swing installer Ed Solomon on Jan.27 in a segment about the 2020 election, which President Joe Biden won nearly three months earlier.

In the interview, Solomon claimed he had conducted a mathematical analysis showing that the results in Fulton County, Georgia, “could only have been obtained by an algorithm.” He added that the probability of Biden’s victory in the county was “1 in 10 for an exponent so large that there aren’t enough stars in the universe, there aren’t enough stars. atoms in the universe, to explain the number “.

It is not known where Solomon got his dataset, or if he invented it. Factcheck.org compared the numbers it used in its analysis with the data available from the Georgia Secretary of State and found that they did not add up. An audit of the votes cast in Georgia in the 2020 election found the results to be correct.

According to the Dominion lawsuit, Solomon is not an “expert mathematician” as OAN claimed, but “was in fact a convicted felon without a college degree.” The lawsuit said Solomon’s “current job is to set up swings on Long Island, New York.”

A spokesperson for Stony Brook University, with which Solomon claimed an affiliation, previously told Factcheck.org that he had taken several math courses in his seven years at school, but didn’t had never obtained an undergraduate degree.

A person who appeared to be Solomon was also arrested in 2016 on drug-related charges and served two years in prison, according to Vice.

Dominion included the claims in a lawsuit filed against OAN on Tuesday, alleging libel over electoral conspiracy theories and claiming more than $ 1.6 billion in damages.

OAN representatives did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. A Twitter account that appeared to be associated with Solomon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dominion previously decried Solomon in a letter to MyPillow CEO and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell. The letter, dated February 4 and obtained by Insider, also pointed out that Salomon “is not a” mathematician “” and that he “is currently employed as an” installer “at a swing construction company.” Dominion is suing Lindell, along with many other entities, over false conspiracy theories about the company’s role in the 2020 election.

On the same day, Dominion said in his lawsuit, he sent a letter to OAN demanding a retraction of Bobb’s interview with Solomon. OAN then removed the interview from its website, but left it on other platforms, according to the lawsuit.

“OAN itself had indeed recognized [the claims were false] by secretly removing several articles and shows from its own website that made similar allegations, ”the Dominion lawsuit said.