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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 was arrested in Canada this week after failing to report to prison and attempting to apply for asylum there, with local border agents capturing the 32-year-old in Whistler — on the anniversary of the 2021 insurrection — while he was on a snowboarding trip, according to reports.
Antony Vo, a former Bloomington resident and “fugitive from U.S. justice,” was arrested without incident in Whistler, British Columbia, on Jan. 6 for violating Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), according to a statement from the Canada Border Services Agency. He applied for asylum in the country last month after skipping out on a nine-month prison sentence that he was supposed to serve after being found guilty of multiple charges related to the Jan. 6 attack, 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.
“We can confirm that Mr. Vo, a fugitive from U.S. justice, was arrested without incident in Whistler, BC on January 6, 2025, on warrant under the IRPA,” said CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy in a statement to Law&Crime on Thursday. “The CBSA has a legal obligation to remove all foreign nationals who are inadmissible to Canada under the IRPA and who have a removal order in force.”
In August, it was reported by CBS News that Vo was missing and there was an “active effort” underway to find him after he failed to report to the federal correctional facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he was slated to serve out his sentence.
Vo 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 special counsel Jack Smith essentially dropped the matter — 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. He later came forward in December and admitted to being across the northern border, telling the CW affiliate WISH that he was standing up for his “rights” as an American and refused to be locked up.
“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.”
According to WISH, Vo was living somewhere in Canada with his mother, who got hit with federal charges in August for her alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riots, before his arrest this week.
The Toronto Star reported Sunday, Jan. 5, that Vo was in Whistler to snowboard after speaking with him. The newspaper said he crossed into the country either through North Dakota or Montana, with CBSA officials having “no record” of him entering, according to Purdy.
“The CBSA does not have a record of Antony Vo entering Canada at Regway, SK, or any other official port of entry,” Purdy told Law&Crime.
Vo’s failed application for asylum described his conviction as being part of a government conspiracy and “purely political persecution.” He told WISH that he believed President-elect Trump will pardon him and other Jan. 6 rioters once he’s back in office on Jan. 20, saying: “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.”
Speaking to the Toronto Star before his arrest, Vo said he was “pretty much 99 percent sure” that he’d be pardoned. “I really don’t have any reason to doubt it,” he said. “It’s definitely a priority for him.”
Describing why he stormed the Capitol, Vo told WISH 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 said. “I thought it was totally permitted.”
Up until this week, Vo was waiting for assurances from Canadian officials that he wouldn’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.
