Alleged member of 'The Boys' militia sentenced to probation for role in Capitol riot

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and former member of an alleged Alexandria-area militia was sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation for his role in the Capitol riot.

Fi Duong, 30, of Fairfax County, was arrested in July 2021 and pleaded guilty in April 2023 to one felony count of civil disorder. He was originally scheduled to be sentenced in July 2023, but that hearing was repeatedly delayed for more than a year.

Duong appeared Tuesday morning before U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman and was sentenced to 36 months of probation and $2,000 in restitution.

In his initial charging documents, prosecutors said Duong, who also went by the moniker “Monkey King,” unlawfully entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 wearing a “Japanese-style mask” and all-black clothing in an attempt to blend in with members of “antifa” he believed would be present. According to prosecutors, Duong was inside the Capitol for less than 10 minutes. 

Much of the affidavit filed in his case focused not on his acts at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but rather what he allegedly did after the riot as a member of what investigators described as a Northern Virginia militia named “The Boys,” after the comic book series and popular Amazon Prime adaptation of the same name.

Investigators said while in D.C. on Jan. 6, Duong encountered and introduced himself to an undercover DC Police Department employee (UCE) near Freedom Plaza. The two stayed in touch after the riot and allegedly spoke on multiple occasions about Duon’s group surveilling the Capitol.

On Feb. 10, 2021, the UCE said they received a message from Duong about one of his guys “patrolling the green zone” outside the Capitol and asking if they were familiar with “SALUTE reports.” Salute is an acronym that stands for “Size, Activity, Location, Unit identification, Time and Equipment.” It’s a standard means of reporting enemy information used by the U.S. Marine Corps and other branches of the military.

On the same day, an unnamed associate of Duong’s reportedly messaged that they had taken footage of the Capitol’s west and east faces and was going to upload it to an encrypted cloud storage when they got home.

Three days later, the FBI said the associate proposed an “intel run” around the Capitol, saying it would be a “good opportunity to expose weaknesses.”

Charging documents also said Duong talked about his fear that his family property in Alexandria could become “Waco 2.0” and his worry that he might die in a gunfight with federal agents. The UCE also told the FBI Duon had begun collecting materials for making dozens of Molotov cocktails – something his attorney vigorously pushed back on in her sentencing memo.

Defense attorney Sabrina Shroff, who has represented Duong since his arrest, said prosecutors were eventually forced to admit they had no evidence Duong ever completed construction of a Molotov cocktail or any other explosive device. She also said there was no evidence any of the alleged surveillance of the Capitol by other militia embers ever even occurred. In her sentencing memo, Shroff asked Friedman to “ignore the government’s gossip and unproven innuendo.”

“Contrary to the government’s bald assertions, Mr. Duong is among the least culpable defendants being prosecuted for offenses committed on January 6,” Shroff wrote. “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.”

Prosecutors sought four months in prison for Duong to be followed by three years of supervised release. In a presentencing report, a probation officer recommended Duong be given three years of probation – which Shroff also requested in her memo. She pointed out Duong had been on home incarceration with GPS monitoring for more than three years since his arrest without any reported violations.

“Fi deeply regrets his prior actions on January 6,” Shroff wrote. “Most deeply, he regrets the impact and harm his actions, and the last three years of house arrest, have had on his family. He is determined to never cause them any such harm or shame again.”

In the 45 months since the attack on the U.S. Capitol, more than 1,500 defendants have been charged. Nearly 1,200 defendants have now pleaded guilty or been convicted, including more than 200 who have pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding police.