Doctored police photo stokes January 6 conspiracy theories

"This is a good way to start a riot. Spray pepper spray into the face of a peaceful protester on J6. What a complete setup," says actress Pamela Hensley, who has previously shared misinformation about US President Joe Biden and other Democratic politicians, in a November 27, 2023 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Screenshot from X, formerly Twitter, taken November 30, 2023

Another post from an account called "ProudArmyBrat," which has also previously amplified misinformation, adds: "If this wasn't meant to instigate the crowd, nothing was!"

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Screenshot from X taken November 30, 2023

The image spread across X and other platforms, adding to a flood of posts rehashing long-debunked conspiracy theories about the riot being an FBI setup. The claims resurged after new Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson ordered hours of security footage released in November.

More than 1,200 people have been arrested in connection to the attack, during which Trump supporters sought to halt Congress's certification of Biden's 2020 electoral victory. Trump, who is slated to go on trial in March on charges of conspiring to overturn those results, has amplified calls to prosecute the police officers who defended the Capitol.

But the picture circulating online is manipulated.

In the original photo taken by AFP photographer Roberto Schmidt (archived here), the officer is not smiling or wearing glasses. He also has a smaller nose.

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Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they breach the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021 ( AFP / ROBERTO SCHMIDT)

The officer is wearing a badge for Washington's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

"We are aware that an altered photo of a Metropolitan Police Department officer is circulating social media," the MPD told AFP in a December 1, 2023 email. "The unaltered photo shows the officer pictured defending the Capitol."

The officer and the man blasted with the spray -- who wore a blue shirt, glasses and a red beanie with what looks like a pro-Trump logo on the side -- appear in other photos Schmidt snapped during the riot. Other outlets also captured photos of both individuals (archived here and here).

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A wider angle of the same area shows the police officer and man as rioters breached the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021 ( AFP / ROBERTO SCHMIDT)

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This photo shows the same man sprayed by police in the background on the left as Trump supporters breached the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021 ( AFP / ROBERTO SCHMIDT)

 

AFP could not determine the identity of the rioter -- or whether he has been charged or arrested.

Keven Ruby, a senior research associate with the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, previously told AFP that his team's analysis of more than 1,130 cases related to the Capitol attack has found no evidence FBI agents instigated any defendant charged.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has also testified that his agency had "emphatically not" orchestrated the violence.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the January 6, 2021 attack here.