By TIM SPEARS
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Newly-pardoned Jan. 6 defendant Antony Vo has returned home to Indiana, hoping his next steps could include working in the Trump Administration.
Vo was prosecuted as a non-violent participant in the Capitol Riot, but refused to serve his prison sentence. Vo escaped to Canada to seek asylum, only to be arrested there and banned from the country for a year.
Now, he’s back home at his family’s house in Fishers and cleared of all charges.
“I guess it’s nice that I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen,” Vo said in an interview with I-Team 8’s Tim Spears. “I feel like now I can be a better steward of my future.”
Now, four years removed from his 2021 visit to Washington, D.C. as part of the “Stop the Steal” rally, Vo hopes the next time he’s in Washington, D.C., it will be as an employee.
Vo told News 8 he’s applied for positions with the new Department of Government Efficiency, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
“I would like to work in public service and reduce the need of government to do everything for people,” Vo said.
Fellow Jan. 6 participant Jeff Zink unsuccessfully ran for a congressional seat in Arizona, and is reportedly being considered for a position with DHHS. Vo said he keeps in touch with others prosecuted in the Capitol riot, who Vo believes could also end up in public service.
While Vo reiterated that most of the roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants pardoned were not considered violent, he still supports the blanket pardons and commuted sentences for people convicted on violent charges.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned the Jan. 6 pardons, saying the issuances included leaders and members of extremist groups.
“This decision undermines accountability & risks reinvigorating violent extremists and other insurrectionists,” the ADL said in a statement.
Vo maintains the Jan. 6 prosecutions were politically motivated, and believes the violence from the riot was the result of a government conspiracy.
“People [were] already in a frenzy and [federal agents could] whip them up very easily to do things,” Vo said.
Vo now considers Jan. 6 to be a point of pride.
“I lost people who I thought were my friends, job applications got ignored,” Vo said. “But now I don’t think it will be a stigma as much as I think it will be a badge of honor.”
Years after protesting in Washington, he hopes to one day have a hand in how it’s run.
Vo joined the “Stop the Steal” rally with his mother, Annie Vo. She was also pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Antony says he plans to appeal his ban in Canada.
This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/i-team-8/pardoned-jan-6-defendant-back-in-indiana.
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