An American man who fled after serving a prison sentence for his role in the Capitol riot is now seeking political asylum in Canada, hoping for a pardon when President Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Anthony Baugh, 32, was sentenced to nine months in prison and ordered to report to federal prison on June 14, 2024, but instead fled to Canada.
More than 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on Congress that attempted to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
Vaux, from Indiana, was found guilty of four counts of entering a restricted building and related disorderly conduct after a jury trial in Washington.
“I knew Canada had a history of welcoming refugees, from Vietnam draft dodgers to the people who sheltered Edward Snowden in Hong Kong,” he told AFP.
“So I packed up my snowboarding gear and drove across the border.”
Bo said in his asylum application that the riot was a “peaceful protest” that was “suppressed as part of a domestic regime change operation to politically assassinate Mr. Trump and his supporters.” .
The storming of the Capitol followed a fiery speech by then-President Trump to tens of thousands of supporters near the White House, in which he made false claims that he had won the 2020 vote. repeated.
More than 140 police officers were injured in hours-long clashes with rioters brandishing improvised weapons including flagpoles, baseball bats and hockey sticks, along with Tasers and cans of bear spray.
Vo insisted that he saw no violence.
Images on social media showed Vo and her mother Annie, who fled Vietnam in 1991 and was granted asylum in the United States, smiling inside the Capitol that day. She was arrested in March and is awaiting trial.
Beau said he wants to remain in Canada “until the situation is safe for me to return to the United States.” “I hope that once Donald Trump becomes president, he will pardon me and the rest of the January 6th protesters.”
President Trump called the rioters “patriots” and “political prisoners” and said at CNN Town Hall, “I intend to pardon many of them.”
Several defendants in the Capitol riot took advantage of Trump’s election victory over Kamala Harris to seek a stay of trial and sentencing.
Trump himself, who will be re-elected as president in January, was also charged with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
However, the case did not go to trial and is currently closed under the Justice Department’s policy not to prosecute sitting presidents.
Vo said he also tried to seek asylum in Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Vietnam, Belarus and Russia.
“I took paramotor lessons and paramotorized from Key West to Cuba, and seriously considered seeking asylum there as well,” he said in his claim.
In Canada, “people took really good care of us,” Vaux said.
