I guess my problem really is, if this photo existed, why did n’t it go viral a week ago? Instead, the knot was cut off, and only NOW do we see this. It IS a noose, but it looks too fresh. The end is not frayed. The knot is photographed in a very dramatic way. No grease. Either this is a threat or it isn’t. 15 FBI agents said no, yet this is clearly a hangman’s noose. (and no, you don’t need thirteen wraps to be a noose).
On another note, I read from a comment yesterday that the FBI had said the noose was “non-operative”, which we assume meant “did not actually slip”, but I can’t find that in the FBI information.
If it was non-operative, then I think it was a different knot, not an actual “noose”.