The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested a Wixom, Michigan man who the agency contends entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and allegedly assaulted individuals with a hockey stick.
Michael Joseph Foy was arrested and appeared Thursday before Eastern District of Michigan U.S. District Magistrate Judge David Grand via Zoom from an unidentified Detroit courtroom.
Wearing a gray Adidas hoodie and blue surgical mask, Foy gave short answers to all of Grand’s questions.
The 29-year-old Oakland County resident was assigned a court-appointed attorney and will appear in court Monday for a detention hearing, where federal prosecutors are expected to also produce body camera footage of the alleged assault and ask for Foy’s continued detention.
According to his LinkedIn page, Foy was a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps and worked for the U.S. Department of Defense from 2015 to 2019.
Foy is charged with having entered and remained on restricted grounds with the intent to impede with authority; obstruction of law enforcement; assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating or interfering with an officer; and aiding and abetting.
He also is charged with obstructing, impeding or influencing any official proceeding of Congress.
In the FBI’s Tuesday filing, signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather, an FBI special agent referred to several photos and videos allegedly showing Foy carrying a hockey stick at the U.S. Capitol and at times swinging it at individuals, including one person lying on the ground and a law enforcement official.
“At no point does it appear that the individual on the ground is acting aggressively, nor does it appear that the attack is justified,” an FBI special agent wrote.
A separate YouTube video posted online shows Foy “striking a group of Metropolitan Police Officer assisting in the protection of the U.S. Capitol who had been knocked down and dragged in the crowd of rioters,” the special agent’s statement said.
“This attack continues for approximately 16 seconds until Foy is knocked down by another rioter,” the statement said.
The YouTube video appears to show Foy say “Let’s go” as he points toward the Capitol. Minutes later, the video appears to show Foy crawling through a broken window at the U.S. Capitol, according to the FBI filing.
Police connected the individual in the Jan. 6 photos and video to Foy based on his clothing and appearance, which matched his driver’s license and photos on his father’s Facebook page, according to the FBI’s filing.
The FBI said a Facebook post showing Foy in front of the Washington Monument the day of the rioting was posted by his father and commented on by a Facebook user who asked, “Was he the guy sitting in Nancy Pelosi’s chair?”
Foy’s father responded, according to the FBI with, “…he was raised better.”
Foy also was photographed outside the TCF Center in Detroit on Nov. 6 by the Detroit Free Press, according to the FBI. A photographer for The Detroit News photographed him at a Nov. 14 “Stop the Steal” rally in Lansing.
The FBI said it started its investigation after receiving a tip on Twitter that included a photo of a man carrying a hockey stick and alleged the man had killed a police officer with the hockey stick.
The FBI said neither the agency nor other law enforcement officials have found evidence of a killing, but noted the tip launched its investigation into Foy.
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