It’s been more than four years since IU alumnus Antony Vo and his mom were at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, hearing “Amazing Grace,” played on a flute in the Colonnade.
He and his mom started that day at President Donald Trump’s speech on the Ellipse, a park near the White House which he said was a 40-minute walk away from the Capitol. Vo recalled the crowd as “pretty rowdy.”
“We were packed in there like sardines,” he said. “We never even saw Trump.”
He saw people climbing trees and porta-potties to be able to see Trump. He said Trump told attendees to “peacefully and patriotically” march to the Capitol.
Trump ended his speech urging supporters to “fight like hell,” to protect the country, a line that would be scrutinized during his impeachment trial.
After leaving the speech, Vo and his mom walked to the Capitol with the crowd. There, they saw people climbing on the building and wanted to get closer to see what was going on. He said they walked up the stairs to the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol and recalled seeing 50-60 police officers standing back, not seeming to not be doing anything.
Vo said before entering the Capitol, the doors opened, and police escorted out some of the people already inside. He and his mother stood behind a group of 50 to 100 people, pleading, “let us in.”
“Next thing we know, this pretty orderly single file line started moving into the Capitol,” he said.
Footage from the Capitol that day showed not everyone entered in an orderly manner, with many protesters smashing windows, scaling walls and pushing past police who were struggling to contain the crowd.
Vo, who had been arrested a year earlier at a festival, said he wanted to stay out of trouble.
After 15 to 20 minutes inside, he said a police officer politely asked him and his mother, who were sitting on benches around the Rotunda, to leave.
“People like to describe Jan. 6 as an insurrection,” he said. “But that wasn’t true.”
According to The Associated Press, there have been nearly 1,500 Jan. 6 cases brought by the Justice Department.
Although not all individuals were involved in violence that day, there were many cases of police officers described being attacked and at least nine deaths – one Trump supporter who was fatally shot by police, three deaths in the crowd due to medical emergency, four officers who were at the Capitol later died by suicide and a police officer who collapsed and died after engaging with protestors.
The U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack investigated the incident and released a final report in December 2022 alleging Trump engaged in “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Two former Proud Boys leaders were sentenced in September 2023 for their roles in the breach of the Capitol and disrupting the counting of electoral votes.
Antony Vo and his mom are pictured inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Vo had his charges dropped after President Donald Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people involved in the riot.
Vo grew up in Fishers, Indiana, and transferred to IU from Miami University in fall 2012. However, he left school in 2015 to care for his sick father. Vo attempted to go back to school in 2016 after his father died, but ended up dropping out.
“I kind of fucked off and traveled around for like a few years,” he said. “I felt like around 2019 I kind of ran out of things to do.”
Vo returned to IU in 2019. He later graduated with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience in summer 2020 during the pandemic. He was a member of the Ski and Snowboard Club and Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.
After Jan. 6, Vo said he texted his friends things like “yeah, we stormed the Capitol” but never thought that would be used as evidence in his case.
He also posted on social media about his presence in the Capitol building after the riot. According to court documents, he said in a social media message “my mom and I got to storm the Capitol.” He said he never thought the FBI would ever come after him.
Vo received a nine-month sentence on April 10, 2024, and was ordered to report to prison on June 14 by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. The jury convicted Vo of four misdemeanors related to the incident.
- Entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds
- Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds
- Disorderly or disruptive conduct on the grounds or in the buildings of the United States Capitol
- Parading, demonstrating or picketing in any Capitol building
Vo said he was never involved in any violence. He pled guilty to willfully parading, demonstrating and picketing, despite saying he felt pressured by Chutkan to do so.
Vo’s mother, Annie Vo, was also charged in July 2021 but never had a trial. Antony believes her age and history of fleeing communism in Vietnam contributed to her delayed trial.
Vo said his mother and sisters fled communism in Vietnam and that his family was persecuted heavily there. He said his father spent 10 years in a reeducation camp because he was an officer in the South Vietnamese army. In 1991, his family was able to legally enter the United States as refugees and Vo was born a year afterward.
After attending the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington in February, and posting on the internet, Vo said people began questioning why his mother hadn’t been arrested. Within a week, the FBI came to arrest her.
Vo described her arrest as “pretty gruesome,” and his mother later told him it was worse than anything she had experienced in Vietnam. He said the FBI arrested her in three points — her wrists, waist and ankles — with “really heavy chains.”
When Vo was arrested by the FBI in Bloomington in July 2021, he said the agents bought him McDonald’s — he ordered a four-count nugget with sweet and sour sauce — and had taken him to court in Terre Haute.
Vo was found guilty after a trial in September 2023. But instead of reporting to prison on June 14, 2024, Vo fled to Canada. He contacted many Canadian lawyers seeking political asylum and one, immigration lawyer Oluwadamilola Asuni, responded quickly. Asuni advised Vo to enter Canada “irregularly” and apply for asylum as soon as he arrived.
Vo drove from Indiana to Canada searching potential entry points near North Dakota and Montana. Using binoculars to check for Border Patrol agents, he only noticed two people tending to horses, who waved at him. He waved and smiled back.
He eventually crossed the border on an unfamiliar farm road in Montana whose gate happened to be open.
“I was praying really hard,” he said. “By the grace of God, I was able to just go down that road and drive through this property.”
Vo spent most of his time in Edmonton, Alberta, where he joined a tennis and beach volleyball club and made friends who supported him throughout his journey. His dad always wanted him to play tennis, but he never got a chance to until his last year at IU.
He also pursued his dream of skiing in Whistler, British Columbia, for two weeks during Christmas until he was arrested.
On Jan. 6, 2025, in Whistler, the Canadian Border Services arrested Vo in the hostel he was staying at. He spent three weeks in detention and had his computer privileges revoked after contacting journalists about what he called his “illegal” arrest.
“I guess like a lot of people just hated the fact that I was here seeking asylum,” he said. “Escaping my prison sentence that they thought that I deserved.”
He said he had received death threats during this time. People mass reported him to the Canadian government, he said, and Canada Border Services Agency opened a special investigation on his refugee process.
Still, he said a lot of people had stepped up for him at the time. Many friends he made in Edmonton paid several bonds for him while he was in detention.
He said it made him very emotional when the people from the tennis and beach volleyball community stepped up for him.
“It felt like my dad was helping me from above,” he said.
On Jan. 15, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a new charge against Vo for failure to report to prison. Vo said the charge was later cleared after a few days. Vo said the executive order did not automatically cover the charge so his lawyer in the United States, filed a motion to dismiss.
On Trump’s first day back in the White House, he pardoned 1,500-plus people charged in relation to Jan. 6. Vo was one of them, but he remained detained in Canada.
Vo continued to fight his case in Canada with the help of a new lawyer, Robert Tibbo. Tibbo had Vo drop his Canadian refugee application after his charges were cleared.
“It turned out the Canadian government wanted to force me into my admissibility hearing to ban me from Canada forever,” he said.
Vo said the “January 6 community” reached out to the Trump team and was motivated to get him out of Canada.
The night before his hearing, Vo said he and Tibbo got into a “side argument” when Tibbo recommended he concede that he entered illegally. Vo said he wanted to continue fighting. He ended up conceding in the hearing that he “eluded entry” and did not report to agents in a timely manner.
“I should have fired him,” he said. “All the press that came out after was total B.S.”
After Vo’s hearing, he was released from Canadian custody and taken to the U.S. border. Vo cannot enter Canada for one year following the hearing.
“I think I left in tears,” he said. “Everyone was awesome.”
When Vo was taken back to the border, he said everyone was really curious about Jan. 6 and wanted him to tell them about it.
Vo said one of the U.S. Border Patrol Agents looked over at him and asked, “are you the guy we heard about on the radio?... wow you are a legend.”
Now back in Indianapolis, Vo said he is in the process of applying for a job at the U.S. Health and Humans Services Department, which he hopes will soon be run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Vo said he plans to appeal his ban in Canada.
He hopes to come back to Bloomington soon to visit his niece, an IU freshman. He wants to go to concerts at the Bluebird and visit Brown County.
Vo said later this month he wants to make use of his Epic Ski and Snowboard Pass by going to Colorado with a friend from IU. He hopes to go to Mexico in March to visit friends he made in Canadian detention and get some cervezas with them.
CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to make clear the number of protesters smashing windows and scaling walls.
The Indiana Daily Student's full interview with Vo is available here.
