The media has now backed off a claim that they’ve made now for more than a month: that Officer Brian Sicknick was killed after being hit by a fire extinguisher during the Capitol riot.

Now, we reported back on Jan. 10, a few days after, that there wasn’t evidence to support the claim at that time, that he collapsed several hours later after he had gone back to his office and texted his brother that he was fine after the riot. Authorities said he had no blunt trauma injury so the story about the fire extinguisher doesn’t stand up and they have yet to find any incident in the evidence that they’ve combed that they believe could be a precipitating incident. His family says he died from a stroke at the hospital.

Now there’s another story that may just have been debunked. You may recall the infamous picture of a man climbing over seats in the Capitol gallery of the Senate chamber holding what appeared to be zip ties or flex cuffs. That beamed around the world with people suggesting this was proof of an intent to kidnap lawmakers.

Anyway, purported fact-checkers are pretending my reference to the false zip-tie story was to deny there were zip-ties in the Capitol. OF COURSE there were zip-ties in the Capitol.

The prosecutors *admit* the false claim is the protester brought them:https://t.co/orDahGqy88

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 16, 2021

Well, not so much.

Now, this is one of those times where the picture or the video appears clear but actually isn’t.

But in this particular case, the story of the zip ties was distorted out of all reality because the guy didn’t actually bring them to the Capitol. According to prosecutors, the man found them on a desk that he happened to encounter once he got inside the Capitol. He took them apparently to ensure the Capitol Police couldn’t use them on the protesters, according to the prosecutors.

So no, he wasn’t bringing them in to kidnap lawmakers. But the picture has been pointed to and used innumerable times to suggest a kidnapping plot.

According to the DOJ, the zip ties were left sitting on a table that one of the intruders happened to randomly encounter. The falsity of the initial "zip tie" narrative was the now-discredited suggestion that they indicated some kind of premeditated mass kidnapping plot https://t.co/lPeM6WL70w

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 16, 2021

This is what the House could not wait to investigate. Why does @SpeakerPelosi want an outside investigation instead of bipartisan panel? Because Republicans might ask questions about the official narrative that drove the snap #Impeachment. https://t.co/hQBNw5IdVn

— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) February 16, 2021

On top of that they used the zip tie guy during impeachment misleading people without providing context. You wonder why there are hearings and investigations before someone is impeached, this is why. https://t.co/Dgbqg5CviZ

— Stuck in the Middle (@StucknDaMid) February 16, 2021

Except not in this case, because Democrats in the House didn’t even bother with having a hearing, establishing any factual record, or affording President Donald Trump any counsel before voting on impeachment in the House. Which was one of the reasons that Republicans voted to acquit.

HT: Twitchy