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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).
A Jan. 6 rioter who was arrested in Canada after failing to report to prison and attempting to apply for asylum is now looking at the possibility of spending another year behind bars — on top of his original nine month sentence — for fleeing justice, according to federal prosecutors.
Antony Vo, a former Indiana resident convicted of storming the Capitol with his mother, was charged Wednesday with “failure to surrender for sentence” after being captured on Jan. 6 in Whistler, British Columbia, by Canadian border agents, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Attorney’s Office. The criminal complaint filed against Vo, which was obtained by Law&Crime, details how he told news outlets in Canada and the United States over the past several weeks that he was “attempting to escape prosecution by undergoing the asylum process” across the border.
“He intended to remain in Canada anticipating a change in policy in the incoming administration,” the complaint says. “On January 6, 2025, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) took Vo into custody
for an alleged illegal entry into the country. His removal proceedings remain ongoing.”
Vo, 32, was captured during a snowboarding trip in Whistler on the anniversary of the 2021 insurrection, according to reports. The former Bloomington, Indiana, resident was arrested without incident by border agents for violating Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), according to the Canada Border Services Agency.
Vo applied for asylum last month after skipping out on the nine-month prison sentence 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,” CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said in a statement to Law&Crime. “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 where he was supposed 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.”
“Judge Chutkan permitted Vo to self-surrender for his sentence at the behest of the District of Columbia Probation Office,” his complaint states for the fleeing justice charge.
Prosecutors say Vo’s probation office initially ordered him to report to the Bureau of Prisons Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, by June 4, 2024. The office “successfully communicated with Vo over the phone to apprise him of his surrender date and location,” according to the complaint, and he was even granted an extension of time until June 14, 2024.
“Vo did not self-surrender to the Bureau of Prisons as ordered,” the complaint says. “Instead, Vo fled to Canada.”
According to the Indiana CW affiliate WISH, Vo was living somewhere in Canada with his mother before his recent arrest. She got hit with federal charges in August for her alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riots and has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
The Toronto Star reported on 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. CBSA officials have “no record” of him entering, according to Purdy.
Vo’s 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.”
Last week, Vice President-elect JD Vance provided the clearest explanation yet of the Trump administration‘s plans to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, telling “Fox News Sunday” that those who committed violence during the Capitol attack “obviously” shouldn’t be pardoned. Those who protested “peacefully,” however, can expect to have their records wiped clean.
“I think it’s very simple,” the former Ohio senator said. “If you protested peacefully on Jan. 6 and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
