Journalist to sue New York Times after false depiction in US Capitol riot documentary

Independent journalist Brendon Leslie said that The New York Times documentary titled How Trump Supporters Took the US Capitol: Visual Investigations, not only falsely depicted him as a rioter, but "hijacked" his content without approval.

"@nytimes decided to hijack content that my news company produced without request, they have also slanderously defamed me depicting me as a rioter, while I was in DC in a professional capacity as a journalist," Leslie wrote.

"My lawyers are coming for you!" he added.

According to a producer with The New York Times, Haley Willis, the selectively-edited propaganda documentary was created over the course of six months and consisted of a "massive team effort."

"Our Visual Investigations team synchronized and mapped thousands of videos of the US Capitol riot to provide the most complete picture to date of what happened on Jan. 6. We went to court to unseal police body camera footage, scoured law enforcement radio communications and interviewed witnesses," Willis said.

The New York Times recently issued a correction to their reporting on the US Capitol riot and retracted claims that Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick was killed by a Trump supporter with a fire extinguisher. The paper used anonymous sources to substantiate the false claim.

The article was later cited by a variety of mainstream media outlets without questioning the reporting of the paper. His death was even brought up by Democrats during Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate.

Investigators have found no evidence of trauma sustained by blows to the head, and nobody has been arrested in connection to Sicknick's alleged murder.