‘Oops’: Utah senator, Fox News apologize for linking data center foes to China

SALT LAKE CITY — The apologies and clarifications are pouring out to two Utah groups erroneously targeted by businessman Kevin O’Leary last May for having links to China as the initial debate unfolded about the controversial Box Elder County data center proposal.

Utah Sen. Todd Weiler was the last to offer a mea culpa. “Oops. I was duped. Sorry everyone,” he wrote in a social media post on Monday.

Weiler joins O’Leary, who posted a social media message on June 25 clarifying his position, though not apologizing, and Fox News journalist Maria Bartiromo, who issued an apology on behalf of the news outlet on June 26. Bartiromo hosted O’Leary on a Fox Business television program on May 11, when the businessman, spearheading the data center plans, suggested foes of the proposal had ties to the Chinese government, charges the critics have rejected.

Fox News is aware of no evidence that the Alliance for a Better Utah or Elevate Strategies “are funded by or acting at the direction of or in coordination with Chinese interests in opposing Kevin O’Leary’s projects,” Bartiromo said, according to a clip posted by Media Matters. “Fox News Media apologizes for the error.”

O’Leary, pushing the Box Elder County proposal through O’Leary Digital, had suggested foes of his data center initiative were “proxies for the Chinese government” in his interview. “This is the CCP at work here,” he told Fox, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

He and others have touted the Box Elder County data center initiative, to be used by the military and military interests, as key to national security. They’ve also stressed the importance of not lagging behind China in data center development.

Aside from mentioning the Alliance for a Better Utah, which advocates for progressive policies, and Elevate Strategies, a political consulting firm that has worked with Democratic candidates, O’Leary had also singled out Gabi Finlayson, Joshua Kanter and Taylor Knuth in his criticism of data center critics. Finlayson is a senior partner with Elevate, Kanter is the founder of the Alliance, and Knuth used to lead the Alliance.

In his June 25 post clarifying his stance, however, O’Leary said he had no evidence the two groups or Finlayson, Kanter or Knuth “are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party.” Foes of the data center plans chiefly worry that the operation would harm the environment and sap scarce water resources.

Paul Palandjian, the chief executive officer of O’Leary Digital, said Wednesday that O’Leary’s social media post was intended to set the record straight.

“Kevin wanted to clarify the record, plain and simple,” Palandjian said. O’Leary, nevertheless, “continues to call for transparency about the funding behind organized opposition to critical infrastructure, and that’s a conversation we’re glad to have on the facts.”

The Alliance and Elevate didn’t respond to queries seeking comment, though they have previously rejected the charges of ties to China. But Weiler, a Woods Cross Republican and lawyer, spoke out.

“I’ve always tried to be the type of person that takes accountability. I’m a lawyer, I do that in court. If I say something in court or I misquote something, I try to come back as soon as I can and correct the record,” he said Wednesday. “So as soon as I realized that I had relied on faulty information, I wanted to take ownership for that.”

Weiler had posted a string of posts on June 6 on X, casting a suspicious eye on the Alliance, saying it is “being partially funded with Chinese money.” He had based his messages on information cited by O’Leary Digital representatives, but on seeing O’Leary’s June 25 post, he reconsidered the issue, which led to his apology.

“I haven’t been threatened with a lawsuit. I don’t expect I will be. I’m not up for reelection this year. I’m not reacting to the primary results last week,” Weiler said. “I saw that someone I had mistakenly believed in lied and so I wanted to say, hey, you know, I was duped. This was not true.”

In messages to KSL last May, Palandjian had stepped back from the allegations about a connection between foes of the data center project and China. But he raised suspicions about the funding of the “Utah progressive advocacy network” organized against the data center plans. He pointed to a website created anonymously last May that purports to identify funding sources that aid the network, though it levies no specific allegations of wrongdoing.

In his June 6 messages, Weiler had referenced, in part, KSL’s reporting from last May.

O’Leary Digital’s Box Elder County plans, which have sparked widespread debate and fierce opposition from some, call for development of data centers and up to 9.5 gigawatts of power-generating capacity to support them.