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Left: Jan. 6 rioter Antony Vo with his mother at the U.S. Capitol (Department of Justice). Right: President Donald Trump on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024 (NBC News/YouTube).
A Jan. 6 rioter who was arrested in Canada after failing to report to prison and attempting to apply for asylum has gotten the green light to come back to the United States — with federal prosecutors quashing the arrest warrant they issued for him earlier this month and dismissing his fleeing justice charge — as a result of the presidential pardons last week, his lawyer says.
“He’s very happy with how all this has ended with the presidential pardon and he really wants to go home,” Robert Tibbo, attorney for convicted Indiana rioter Antony Vo, told Law&Crime on Monday. “His four misdemeanor convictions, and also the January 2025 failure to surrender charge, all of those fall under the presidential pardon,” Tibbo said. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office indicated (last week) that a motion was being filed in the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. to have all charges dismissed.”
On Friday, Justice Department prosecutors filed a motion to quash the arrest warrant issued for Vo, 32, after initially choosing to leave his failure to surrender charge on the federal docket after President Donald Trump issued the Jan. 6 pardons on Inauguration Day. DOJ officials told Law&Crime on Wednesday that Vo’s case was still pending despite the pardons and, for the time being, was not scheduled to be dismissed. A letter sent by CBSA officials to Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board last week claimed “Vo was not on the list of individuals pardoned by the US President,” according to the National Post newspaper, but Tibbo says it was a mistake.
“It’s blatantly incorrect and erroneous information,” the Canadian lawyer told Law&Crime. “A CBSA officer spoke with law enforcement across the border and that law enforcement officer told the CBSA officer that Antony Vo had not been pardoned. They said that on the presidential pardon, Antony’s name is not listed. But if you look, Antony falls under section B of the president’s proclamation, which says anybody who is charged or convicted of crimes related to Jan. 6, 2021 at Capitol Hill will be covered.”
The judge handling Vo’s 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 — signed the DOJ order to quash Vo’s warrant after it was filed Friday, according to court filings viewed by Law&Crime.
“Antony can now return to the U.S. and he will not be arrested,” Tibbo told Law&Crime. “Antony has a completely clear record.”
Vo, a former Bloomington resident who was convicted of storming the Capitol with his mother, was looking at the possibility of spending another year behind bars on top of his original nine-month sentence for the failure to surrender charge before he was pardoned by Trump last week, according to federal prosecutors. Vo was captured on Jan. 6 in Whistler, British Columbia, by Canadian border agents while “attempting to escape prosecution by undergoing the asylum process,” prosecutors said.
“He intended to remain in Canada anticipating a change in policy in the incoming administration,” his complaint said. “On January 6, 2025, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) took Vo into custody for an alleged illegal entry into the country.”
Vo was reportedly captured during a snowboarding trip in Whistler on the anniversary of the 2021 insurrection. He was arrested without incident for violating Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), according to the Canada Border Services Agency.
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Tibbo says Vo won’t face any criminal charges for the violation.
“Under the IRPA, they don’t view unlawful entry into Canada by someone who’s seeking refugee protection as being unlawful,” he explained. “The way they view it is that it is simply considered an irregular entry — an improper entry — and he’s given irregular immigration status in Canada. So there’s nothing under the IRPA he would be charged with.”
Vo applied for asylum in December 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 told 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.”
Prosecutors said 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 his criminal 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 said. “Instead, Vo fled to Canada.”
Tibbo says Vo still has some personal belongings in Canada, including his car, but for now all he can think about is getting back to the United States. Vo is scheduled for a Wednesday admissibility hearing with Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, but Tibbo is hoping to have him back in Indiana by Monday’s end.
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“We’re engaging CBSA and immigration officials right now to see if they will bring Antony to a border crossing today,” Tibbo said. “He’s very anxious to get home and has a friend holding the personal items for him. He’s hoping to go to Canada to get those items or have somebody bring them and his car across the border. For right now, he just desperately wants to get back home to Indiana and his family.”
Indiana CW affiliate WISH reported that Vo was living somewhere in Canada with his mother, Annie Vo, before his recent arrest. Tibbo, however, told Law&Crime this wasn’t true and said she was in Indiana. Annie Vo 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.
