Playgirl denies asking Capitol riot officer Michael Fanone to pose naked

Washington DC police officer Michael Fanone won’t be stripping out of his riot gear any time soon.

Claims he turned down a nude photoshoot from Playgirl were denied by its publisher after Time magazine buried the lede in its in-depth profile of the "hero cop".

Following the 6 January attack at the US Capitol, Mr Fanon went on something of a media blitz with the major TV networks and newspapers like CNN and The Washington Post to dispute criticisms that police hadn’t used sufficient force to repel the rioters. He became a public face of the police response to the riot.

"The response was overwhelming. Thousands of letters, tens of thousands of emails, poured into the Metropolitan Police Department. Men wanted to thank him. Children said they looked up to him. Women swooned. (Fanone turned down a request to pose nude in Playgirl.)," wrote journalist Molly Ball.

Hungry for heroes, Ms Ball wrote, adoring liberals posted worshipful memes, made oil paintings of his face, and random people hugged him at gas stations.

What didn’t happen, however, was an offer to bare more than just his heart and soul in the pages of the recently relaunched adult magazine.

"I can confirm that Playgirl Magazine never sent any request for Michael Fanone to pose in the publication,” Jack Lindley Kuhn told Insider.

The Independent reached out to Ms Ball for comment on whether the Playgirl denial could be demonstrably disputed.

Mr Fanone has been one of the most high-profile officers to have responded to the riot, recently giving testimony to the House commission into the events of 6 January. Video footage from his body camera has become the visual low point of the violence.

During the riot, Mr Fanone had a heart attack after being swarmed by the mob of Donald Trump supporters who beat him with a pole, tased him and threw him to the ground.

He told Time that in addition to his life-threatening physical injuries, the attack led to post-traumatic stress disorder.

“There’s people on both sides of the political aisle that are like, ‘Listen, Jan. 6 happened, it was bad, we need to move on as a country,’” he told Time.

“What an arrogant f****** thing for someone to say that wasn’t there that day,” he says. “What needs to happen is there needs to be a reckoning.”