Look out for image claiming to show Ilhan Omar with suspected attacker

On Jan. 27, 2026, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar was accosted and sprayed with liquid from a syringe while speaking at an event in Minneapolis. Authorities immediately arrested the alleged attacker, and, shortly afterwards, a baseless conspiracy theory formed online about the whole ordeal supposedly being staged.

Among those posts were claims that an image supposedly shows Omar posing with the alleged attacker, whom authorities identified as Anthony Kazmierczak. “IT WAS ALL A LIE! Staged for money and deflection from the fraud,” one Threads user (archived) captioned the image, while an X user wrote with the image, “Staged.”

(X user @NoPrivacy16)

The image spread on multiple social media platforms, including X, Facebook and Threads, as authorities investigated the incident. Citing court records, The Associated Press reported on Jan. 29 that Kazmierczak faces a charge of forcibly assaulting, opposing, impeding and intimidating Omar, and that the substance he allegedly sprayed was apple cider vinegar. 

However, the in-question image was not a genuine photograph of Omar with Kazmierczak. Rather, it was a digitally created image, in part, based on a photo from Kazmierczak’s Facebook profile. That photo showed him with a different person, not Omar. 

Furthermore, the digitally created image originated from a parody social media account. (We fact-checked a similar image supposedly showing Omar and Kazmierczak that stemmed from the account, as well.)

Investigating the image’s origins

We ran the image through Google Gemini’s SynthID check, a tool that scans for embedded watermarks by artificial intelligence (AI) software. That scan detected a SynthID watermark and concluded the image was “edited or generated with Google AI.”

(Google Gemini)

In other words, when someone creates visual media using certain Google AI tools, the content has a SynthID watermark that is invisible to the naked eye. A scan of the in-question image for that type of watermark concluded its creator used Google AI models to make it.

A clue for determining the image’s source was across Omar’s hijab: the letters “DFF” as a digitally added watermark.

That evidence suggested the image originated with the X account @DumbFckFinder (DFF), which the social media platform categorizes as a parody account. The account shared the image on Jan. 27, 2026.

The X account’s bio reads (edited for profanities): “Helping free America from DumbF***ery one DumbF*** at a time, Left, Right, we find em all and expose via high quality AI videos and memes.”

The account also reshared other posts circulating the image and acknowledged that some viewers misinterpreted the image as real, writing.

We contacted @DumbFckFinder on X to ask if it created the photo or obtained it from another source. The account replied, “No clue.” (We asked for clarification on what that response means and will update this report if we hear back.)

Kazmierczak posted the photo that was used for the digital creation on Facebook on March 2022:

The identify of the other person in that image, with Kazmierczak, was unknown.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the authentic photo (left) from Facebook and the doctored image (right):

(X user @NoPrivacy16, Facebook user Andy Kazmierczak)

Omar is often the target of political misinformation. We’ve fact-checked a range of rumors about her — including unsubstantiated claims that she married her brother and her net worth is more than $30 million.

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.

Sources