A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
No, a Dominion Voting Systems-owned bank didn’t give Ron DeSantis $2 million
CLAIM: A bank owned by Dominion Voting Systems, Sequoia Capital, donated $2 million to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
THE FACTS: A venture capitalist with Sequoia, a firm that finances emerging companies, contributed $2 million to a political group that is supporting DeSantis’ presidential bid. But Dominion does not own Sequoia Capital; it bought the assets of an unrelated company called Sequoia Voting Systems in 2010. Yet social media users are twisting the facts to suggest that DeSantis is being financially supported by Dominion, a company that was at the center of false claims and conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election. “Of course Ron DeSantis is now claiming the 2020 election was not stolen,” reads one popular tweet on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, referencing DeSantis’ recent comments about the last presidential race. “The dude took in a 2 million dollar donation from Sequoia Capital Bank, owned by DOMINION.” In reality, a filing with the Federal Election Commission shows that Doug Leone, a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital, contributed $2 million to Never Back Down — a super PAC supporting DeSantis. But Dominion doesn’t own Sequoia Capital, a firm that invested in companies such as Apple, Google and Airbnb. “Dominion Voting Systems has no business connection to Sequoia Capital,” the company said in a statement to the AP. “Any claims about a business or financial relationship between Dominion Voting Systems and Sequoia Capital are completely false.” The claim seems to conflate Sequoia with an unrelated entity: Dominion purchased the assets of a company called Sequoia Voting Systems in 2010. Court records show Sequoia Voting Systems’ parent company filed for bankruptcy that year.