Capitol Rioter Seeks Pardon From President-Elect Donald Trump

A participant in the US Capitol riot is counting the days until January 20. Antony Vo sought political asylum in Canada after he was arrested for his role in the events that day in 2021.

He was expected to report to a federal prison in June to serve his nine-month sentence but instead fled to the North. He knew of Canada’s support in those seeking asylum saying, “I knew Canada has a history of being welcoming to refugees, from Vietnam war draft-dodgers to the people who hid Edward Snowden in Hong Kong. So I packed up my snowboarding gear and drove across the border.”

Vo says he also considered traveling to other parts of the world if Canada didn’t work out for him. He tried to seek asylum in Mexico, Vietnam, and Argentina, among other countries. He’s hopeful that President Donald Trump will grant him a pardon once he officially takes office. In the past, Trump has called the rioters “patriots” and “political prisoners,” insinuating that he would pardon many of them involved.

Vo claims his part in the January 6th events in 2020 was a peaceful one, rather than the chaos that was shown throughout the media. On that day, he and his mother were seen smiling as they entered the US Capitol building. Others involved brought baseball bats, hockey sticks and flagpoles as they walked the grounds. More than 170 officers were injured in the event that Trump’s supporters sparked in an attempt to stop the Electoral College vote count of then President-Elect Joe Biden. It’s estimated that Vo and his mother, who was arrested for her role as well, were part of a group of about 2,000 people. About 15 hundred of those people were arrested. The cost of the damage caused reached over $2.5 million.

Earlier that day, Trump was giving a speech to supporters in which he said, “After this, and I’ll be there with you, we’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and we’re gonna cheer on our brave Senators and Congressmen and women and we’re probably not gonna be cheering so much for some of them. Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness because you have to show strength and you have to be strong.”

More recently, some participants who were arrested in the riots are now asking for permission to attend President-Elect Trump’s upcoming Inauguration later this month. One man in particular is claiming he should be granted permission as he’s not a threat to society and poses no danger. But in the court filings, the Department of Justice thinks otherwise, stating, “The last organized event the defendant attended in Washington D.C. spiraled into a full-scale riot.”

Unrelated to the Capitol riots, current President Joe Biden recently granted a pardon to nearly 40 people on death row a few weeks ago. He also granted a pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, who was facing the justice system for federal gun charges as well as tax evasion charges. Biden says, “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”