Altered image used to falsely claim 'staged' attack on Ilhan Omar
- Published on January 30, 2026 at 23:15
- 3 min read
- By AFP USA
US Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar was targeted during a meeting in Minneapolis by a man who sprayed liquid from a syringe at her before being tackled by security guards. President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that the attack was staged and social media posts followed, sharing an image in which the representative appears to be smiling next to Anthony Kazmierczak, the attacker charged with a federal crime. But the image is altered from one shared on Kazmierczak's Facebook account four years ago which included a different person.
"OMG Ilhan Omar staged the whole thing???" says a January 28, 2026 X post.
Additional Facebook posts include the same image of Omar smiling next to a man in glasses and a red brimmed baseball cap with the text: "CBS Investigative News is now reporting that the alleged attacker, Anthony James Kazmierczak, is actually on Omar's payroll, pulling in $50,000 a year from her phony winery?"
The image quickly spread across X, Facebook, Instagram and Threads following the incident at a town hall meeting held in the wake of two American citizens being killed in a violent anti-immigration crackdown with federal immigration agents in Minnesota.
Omar continued her speech after the man, later revealed to be Kazmierczak, was taken into custody by Minneapolis police. The substance he sprayed was determined to be apple cider vinegar.
Minneapolis police booked Kazmierczak on third-degree assault charges and on January 28 the Department of Justice filed federal charges.
Nevertheless, Trump baselessly accused Omar in a January 27 interview with ABC News, of possibly staging the attack. "She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her," Trump said.
The jibe followed weeks of insults by Trump aimed at the Minnesota representative as news of large-scale public benefit fraud in the state (archived here) -- some misleadingly amplified by right wing influencers -- is used to justify immigration enforcement against the state's large Somali community.
Misinformation about the first African refugee elected to Congress and her constituents regularly circulates. Claims the image of Omar purportedly smiling with Kazmierczak proves the attack was staged are similarly false.
A Community Note calling out the image pointed to an X account sharing a screenshot of the original photo and a link to it in a March 2022 Facebook post (archived here and here).
AFP verified that the Facebook profile belongs to Kazmierczak as it also includes a post about Omar (archived here) referenced in the DOJ affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against him.
The blue shirt, red brimmed hat and reflection in the glasses he wears, as well as the background behind him, are identical.
No CBS investigation
The claim about a CBS investigation that accompanied some of the posts appears to be rooted in satire.
A keyword search produces no such reporting on the CBS News website and Google searches for the text bring up a fact check from Lead Stories. They reported the text originated with a January 28, 2026 Facebook post from comedian Jonathan Gregory.
AFP contacted Gregory to ask for evidence of his claim, but a response was not forthcoming. AFP also reached out to CBS but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.
There is no evidence Kazmierczak worked for Omar or a winery. He described himself on Facebook as an "empty nester looking to enjoy retirement" and listed a previous job as a business consultant for a phone company.
The Trump administration has said it would investigate financial disclosures from Omar which showed the value of her husband's investment in a winery in Santa Rosa, California had grown substantially, valued from less than $50,000 in 2023 to as much as $5 million for 2024 (archived here and here). But no charges have been filed.
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation surrounding political unrest in Minnesota here.
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