Germantown man speaks out on FBI raid, January 6 at Phyllis Schlafly Eagles events
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Submitted Photo
Michael Koetting speaks at a Phyllis Schlafly Eagles event on the FBI raid.
By ROBBY DORMAN
GERMANTOWN — Nearly four years after attending the rally-turned-riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, Michael Koetting, of Germantown, is publicly sharing his experience of being targeted by the FBI after being identified by an online group of ‘sedition hunters’ and featured on NBC News.
Speaking at two Phyllis Schlafly Eagles events last week in St. Louis and Edwardsville, Koetting detailed his experience of being raided by the FBI, falsely accused of crimes, and forced to remain in Costa Rica for months to avoid arrest.
The events, held to commemorate Phyllis Schlafly’s endorsement of Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign, gave Koetting a platform to describe what he called political persecution in the wake of January 6.
Koetting began his speech by holding up a “Stop the Steal” shirt he bought in Washington, D.C. on January 6. He said that it may have been designed by Ed Martin, a key organizer of the event and now the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C.
Recounting an encounter with the FBI in Fairview Heights, he said that he questioned the agents about why the FBI had not pursued left-wing rioters with the same intensity as January 6 protesters.
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Michael Koetting, LEFT, outside of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I asked them why they never went after the people burning buildings, setting cop cars on fire, and throwing bricks at police — like they did across the river in Ferguson,” Koetting said. “One agent just looked at me and said, ‘There was a different president then.’”
“I told them, ‘Well, there’s a new sheriff in town now!’ and walked away,” he added.
Koetting, who travels to Costa Rica every year, had already left the country eight days before the FBI raided his Germantown home on October 29, 2024. “My experience was not one percent of the trauma that Lance Ligocki went through,” Koetting said, referring to another Illinois January 6 defendant. “But they still terrorized my wife.”
He said that his wife was forced to sit outside for hours in the cold while agents went through their home, flipping over drawers and searching for evidence. “They told her (that) they had video of me taking pepper spray cans from police bags,” he said. “That was totally untrue.”
Koetting was identified to the FBI by an online group calling itself the ‘Insurrection Hunters,’ which actively tracks and reports January 6 participants. “They were in the crowd taking pictures of people, then sending them to the FBI and NBC News,” Koetting said.
The group circulated a photo of Koetting holding two empty pepper spray cans on the Capitol steps. NBC News aired the image on national television, dubbing him “Old Double Shot.”
In response to his newfound nickname, Koetting filmed a video from a beach in Costa Rica, sitting in a lawn chair with two coconuts in his hands. “I told them, ‘You should change my name to Old Quadruple Shot, because I’ve already had four of these rum drinks today!’” he said.
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Michael Koetting, of Germantown, is glad to be back in the U.S. after months in Costa Rica.
While Koetting was still in Costa Rica, his daughter contacted him and warned him that the FBI had found his return flight information in the raid. “They told my wife they’d be waiting at the airport on November 26 to arrest me,” he said. Determined not to walk into a trap, Koetting changed his flight five times to throw off federal agents.
Frustrated with the government’s priorities, he asked his daughter to question the FBI on why they were spending time tracking down a retired man in Germantown four years later instead of investigating human trafficking. “Why are they looking for me instead of the 385,000 missing children who were trafficked into the sex trade over the last four years?” he asked.
Koetting described January 6 as an orchestrated event, saying that he was eating lunch near the Capitol when a man ran past, yelling, “The patriots are rushing the Capitol! Join your brothers!”
“He had his hand cupped over his mouth and was looking away from the café,” Koetting said. “It seemed a little strange at the time, but we weren’t thinking about that.”
Koetting said that he remained in Costa Rica until after Trump’s inauguration, avoiding arrest while keeping faith that Trump would pardon January 6 protesters. “I trusted Donald Trump 1,000%,” he said.
