On August 26, 2019,
The Daily Beast reported that Ngo was leaving
Quillette. Earlier in the day, the
Portland Mercury covered a video that showed Ngo with members of Patriot Prayer, the far-right group active in Portland, as they planned violence at a bar frequented by left-wing activists.
[5][54][67] Ngo, who ultimately blamed the violence on antifascist activists, is alleged to be smiling and laughing at the discussion.
[51][40] Some of the people he was with now face felony riot charges. Ngo's name was deleted from
Quillette's masthead, and the site from Ngo's twitter feed, at this time.
[31] The editor of
Quillette,
Claire Lehmann, told
The Daily Beast that the two developments were not linked and that Ngo had left the website several weeks earlier.
[31] On August 30,
Spectator USA published an article by Ngo in which he claimed he did not know about the far-right group planning the attack, that he "[only] caught snippets of various conversations" and "was preoccupied on [his] phone", describing the accusations as "lies".
[68]