Even on Election Day 2024, the consequences of Donald Trump supporters rioting after the 2020 election are still playing out — with a man who was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and then participated in an anti-government group sentenced to probation on Tuesday.
The case, when Fi Duong of Northern Virginia was first arrested, was one of the most startling reminders of the potential danger that law enforcement was tracking among extremists after the Capitol attack.
Duong ultimately pleaded guilty to a civil disorder felony for his entry into the building, which he filmed while wearing all-black clothing and a mask.
After the attack, Duong hosted meetings at his house with others who discussed seceding from the US, assembling Molotov cocktails and surveilling the Capitol, prosecutors said, citing an undercover agent who also attended the meetings. He ultimately didn’t face any charges related to that group.
“His participation in the January 6 riot was a betrayal of his oath as a Marine, and his failure to understand his conduct as participation in American domestic extremism is highly concerning,” prosecutors wrote to the judge before the sentencing.
Judge Paul Friedman of the DC District Court, which has sentenced hundreds of January 6 rioters, told Duong at the court hearing Tuesday morning he believed he wouldn’t commit a crime again.
“This is an event in your history. Now you have a felony conviction for the rest of your life,” Friedman said. “I want to wish you very good luck in the years ahead.”
Duong will serve 36 months on probation, pay $2,000 in restitution toward the Capitol and work 50 hours of community service, the judge ordered.
He didn’t receive jail time because he had abided by the court’s orders as he awaited sentencing for about three-and-a-half years, essentially under house arrest, Friedman added.
Duong now works at a go-kart track and takes care of his wife and their special needs child.
Friedman injected very little of the political overtones of the January 6 attack into the proceeding Tuesday — a departure from many of the sentencings of January 6 rioters, where judges have repeatedly condemned the extremist political climate created by Trump.
Duong’s lawyer pointed out that Duong still faces the punishment of being a felon, which will prevent him from ever holding elected office, and other losses of rights.
“If January 6 is in fact a crime of ideology, the government knows general deterrence doesn’t work,” Sabrina Shroff, Duong’s defense lawyer, said in court. She added that Duong was sorry for his crime.