Lake Elmo City Council member Anne Smith has been hit with a political smear — a faked photo on Facebook showing her with a Confederate flag.

Smith said Wednesday that she was appalled when she saw the photo a day earlier.

“That someone would stoop to this level is heinous,” Smith said. “Someone is trying to destroy me. This is defamation.”

The Washington County sheriff’s office confirmed Wednesday that it was investigating the hoax.

Smith said someone apparently created the bogus photo, then signed onto Facebook using her name with the photo as her profile shot.

The photo was quickly removed after it was spotted by an administrator of the “We Love Lake Elmo” Facebook page, said page co-founder Wally Nelson.

Nelson, a political foe of Smith, said the page is a politically neutral community forum, but it is dominated by comments opposing Smith.

Nelson, a former council member who lost his seat in the November election, said he didn’t know if the origins of the photo could be traced.

The “We Love Lake Elmo” page was established in April, when hundreds of Lake Elmo residents protested the departure of city administrator Dean Zuleger, a move supported by Smith.

The site’s 252 members include many outspoken opponents of Smith.

The Confederate battle flag has come under scrutiny in the weeks since nine black churchgoers were fatally shot during a Bible study in Charleston, S.C. Dylann Storm Roof, a white man whose Facebook page showed him posing with the flag, is charged in the deaths, and authorities are investigating the killings as a hate crime.

This month, South Carolina removed the flag from its Statehouse grounds, saying it had become a symbol of the South’s racist past. In Alabama, the governor ordered four Confederate banners removed from a Confederate monument at its state Capitol.

Smith said that linking her to the flag is an attempt to politically wound her.

“The purpose is to defame and embarrass me into resigning,” Smith said. “I have done nothing wrong, and I am not going to resign.”

In September, Jill Lundgren, an ally of Smith, also fell victim to an online hoax as she ran for Lake Elmo City Council: A website — jilllundgren.com — had been set up to post lies and half-truths about her.

Lundgren won the election in November, but the perpetrator of the hoax was never found.

Smith said Wednesday that the same person could be responsible for both Internet hoaxes.

This report includes information from the Associated Press.

Bob Shaw can be reached at 651-228-5433. Follow him at twitter.com/BshawPP.