Left: Jan. 6 rioter Antony Vo with his mom Annie Vo at the U.S. Capitol (Department of Justice). Right: Antony Vo and his mom Annie Vo inside the Capitol building (DOJ).
An Indiana man convicted of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 with his mother has reportedly applied for asylum in Canada — and is already living there, apparently — after failing to report to prison over the summer to serve his sentence.
Antony Vo, a former Bloomington resident, was supposed to spend nine months behind bars after being found guilty of multiple charges last year, including entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, violent entry or disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds and parading, and demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
But he went to Canada instead, according to the CW affiliate WISH.
“Our country, ourselves, we have a long history of standing up for our rights, what we believe in,” Vo told the outlet. “The majority of Jan. 6 people have been held more than accountable.”
Sources told CBS News in August that there was an “active effort” underway to find Vo after he failed to report to the federal correctional facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he was slated to serve out his sentence. He had already drawn scrutiny and been reprimanded by the judge in his Jan. 6 case — U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who oversaw Donald Trump‘s election fraud case before it was axed — for violating pretrial release conditions and referring to himself as a “Jan. 6 wrongful convict,” in addition to blasting the judicial system as convicting him in a “kangaroo court.”
A source told CBS authorities suspected Vo could be in Canada, but his location couldn’t be confirmed.
According to WISH, he’s currently living across the northern border with his mother — who got hit with federal charges in August for her alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riots — as they seek refugee status. Vo’s application for asylum describes his conviction as being part of a government conspiracy and “purely political persecution,” WISH reports. He told the outlet this week that he wants to use his proposed refugee status to stand up for his rights.
Vo said he believes President-elect Trump will pardon him and other Jan. 6 rioters once he’s back in office on Jan. 20, telling WISH: “I think at a fundamental level, like at a foundational level, the whole January 6 thing is just so politicized and corrupted. I think that we’re entirely misrepresented. We’re basically entrapped and treated like very differently than any other protesters.”
Describing why he stormed the Capitol, Vo claimed he thought authorities were letting demonstrators in on purpose.
“I really thought that the police were keeping their oaths to the constitution and were stepping aside to let us exercise our constitutionally guaranteed rights,” he told WISH. “I thought it was totally permitted.”
Vo said he’s already gone through the required medical evaluations for his asylum application but had to cancel a refugee eligibility hearing with Canadian authorities for an undisclosed reason, WISH reports. The outlet notes how Vo has been waiting for assurances that he won’t be detained and deported back to the U.S. as a result of skipping out on his prison sentence. His mother’s case is still pending.
