Li Duong (U.S. Attorney’s Office).
A Marine Corps veteran and self-proclaimed member of a Virginia militia group called the “Boys” was sentenced for entering the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 riots.
Li Duong, 30, was sentenced on Tuesday to 36 months of probation by U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman, a Bill Clinton appointee. Duong will also undergo mental health treatment, 50 hours of community service and pay $2,000 in restitution. He pleaded guilty to one count of civil disorder, court documents said.
Court documents say he went to Washington, D.C., for then-President Donald Trump‘s “Stop the Steal” rally. Then, he entered the Capitol building and stayed inside for about seven minutes — from 2:56 p.m. to 3:03 p.m.
In their sentencing memo requesting four months imprisonment and three years of supervised release, prosecutors said Duong — who also went by the name “Monkey King,” according to court documents — participated in the violent attack at the Capitol that forced an interruption of the certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election, injured more than 100 police officers, and resulted in millions of dollars in losses.
Prosecutors said he showed up that day clad in black, with goggles over his eyes, and wearing a “Japanese-style mask at the rally” ostensibly “to blend in with antifa” and filmed himself there.
“Despite the unmistakable proof that a violent riot was afoot, Duong nonetheless entered the Capitol building through the Senate Wing Door, marched through the Crypt and the Hall of Columns (among other areas), and then exited through the South Door, at the opposite end of the building,” prosecutors said in their memo.
In the months after the attack, they said he continued to participate in “troublingly subversive activities as part of his group.” Prosecutors also said Duong was a member of a northern Virginia group called the “Boys,” named after the ultraviolent Amazon Prime show “The Boys.”
An undercover law enforcement employee infiltrated that group after Jan. 6 and attended several gatherings hosted at Duong’s home, prosecutors said.
“During these meetings, members discussed attendance at the January 6 riot, conducting additional surveillance on the Capitol building, secession from the United States, and creating destructive devices,” the prosecution’s memo said. “The undercover law enforcement employee observed several firearms and boxes of ammunition at Duong’s home during these meetings.”
The memo continued by saying that on the topic of destructive devices, the undercover law enforcement employee witnessed Duong and his associates discuss their construction.
“At a meeting at Duong’s house, Duong told the group that another person would be stopping by during one of his work breaks,” the memo said. “One of the people present replied, ‘Oh, me and him get along about as well as brake fluid and pool chlorine. Which would make an opportunistic weapon given the opportunity.’”
Duong responded to the comment by saying, “I was about to say, I was thinking of … ammonium cel-ummm, it’s like bleach, mix it up with a few other things, like basic household chemicals, you get mustard gas,” court documents said.
Prosecutors also noted his criminal record. During a search of Duong’s house in June 2022, FBI agents found several improperly stored firearms, including an AK-47-style rifle loaded with a full magazine and no bullet in the chamber. The rifle was next to a desk, leaning against a shelf in a room his wife told agents their 2-year-old child liked to play in, court documents said. Duong later pleaded guilty to charges of leaving a gun loaded and endangering a child under the age of 14 and received a two-year suspended sentence, court documents said.
Prosecutors said the former Marine’s participation in the Jan. 6 riot was a betrayal of his oath as a Marine.
“His failure to understand his conduct as participation in American domestic extremism is highly concerning,” the memo said.
Duong’s public defender, Sabrina P. Shroff, said in her sentencing memo asking the court to sentence Duong to the time he already served under house arrest that he regrets his actions for “his terrible error in judgment.”
Shroff said he had no weapons that day and was not violent. The memo noted his military service and said he is a good husband, father, son, and brother.
“The government also wastes much ink trying to portray Mr. Duong as some kind of dangerous revolutionary who is a danger to his community,” Shroff wrote. “The government’s effort fails. Once again, the government talks about what other persons are alleged to have done, without ever proving that Mr. Duong ever did any of those things, or even that those events — i.e., ‘conducting additional surveillance on the Capitol’ or ‘creating destructive devices’ — ever actually took place in real life.”
“Contrary to the government’s bald assertions, Mr. Duong is among the least culpable defendants being prosecuted for offenses committed on January 6,” his memo added. “His offense — a brief, nonviolent entry and walk through the Capitol building — has already resulted in significant hardship and over three years of home incarceration.”
“He is ashamed and deeply regrets the stress and harm his offense has caused his family, and he is determined to never break the law again,” the memo added.
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