Rudy Giuliani ignites fury by dismissing fact-check of Michael Fanone conspiracy theory as a ‘hysterical lie’

Rudy Giuliani promoted a debunked conspiracy accusing a U.S. Capitol police officer of taking part in the Jan. 6 riot that left him with near-fatal injuries.

Various social media users have falsely claimed that Officer Michael Fanone, who testified last week in Congress that Donald Trump supporters brutally attacked him during the insurrection, carried a Confederate flag into the Capitol -- although that rioter, Kevin Seefried, turned himself in to authorities in mid-January.

"Another hysterical lie about 1/6," Giuliani tweeted in response to a fact-check. "So many and the cover-up of killing an unarmed woman by a still unidentified police officer."

Giuliani and other Trump allies have attempted to downplay or deny the insurrection, and have claimed the former president's supporters are political prisoners or, in the case of slain rioter Ashli Babbitt, the victims of police brutality.