Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets jail

A New York City judge’s son who stormed the U.S. Capitol carrying a furry “caveman” costume was sentenced on Friday to eight months in prison.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg stated Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the entrance strains” of the mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

“What you and others did on that day imposed an indelible stain on how our nation is perceived, each at residence and overseas, and that can’t be undone,” the choose informed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to at least one 12 months of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service and pay $2,000 in restitution.

Mostofsky had asked the judge for mercy, saying he was ashamed of his “contribution to the chaos of that day.”

“I feel sorry for the officers that had to take care of that chaos,” stated Mostofsky, who must report to prison in roughly one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a walking stick and dressed in a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He advised a buddy that the costume expressed his belief that “even a caveman” would know that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

Also on Friday, a federal judge agreed to postpone a trial in July for members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group charged with conspiring to forcefully halt the peaceable transfer of power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A first jury trial for 5 of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start on Sept. 26 and is expected to final about a month. A second trial for the opposite 4 defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta agreed to offer defense lawyers more time to organize for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A few protection attorneys expressed concern concerning the attainable impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the identical time as the primary trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a cause for another delay, “even if 435 members of Congress start studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 folks have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded responsible on Friday to assaulting Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone. Head pulled Fanone into a crowd of rioters who beat him, shocked him with a stun gun and stole his badge and police radio. An Iowa man, Kyle Younger, pleaded responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress in regards to the attack.

Greater than 160 defendants have been sentenced, together with over 60 who've been sentenced to terms of imprisonment starting from 14 days to five years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing tips really helpful a jail sentence starting from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors really helpful a sentence of 15 months in jail followed by three years of supervised release.

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted area across the Capitol and among the first to breach the building itself, by means of the Senate Wing doorways, in response to prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers were making an attempt to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot protect, prosecutors said.

“Mostofsky cheered on different rioters as they clashed with police exterior the Capitol building, even celebrating with a fist-bump to certainly one of his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a courtroom filing.

Contained in the constructing, Mostofsky adopted rioters who chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a staircase toward the Senate chambers. He took the police vest and shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after coming into.

Mostofsky often wears costumes at events, based on his legal professionals.

“To place the matter with understatement, the New Yorker is quirky even by the standards of his home city,” they wrote.

A New York Publish reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol in the course of the riot. He told the reporter that he stormed the Capitol because “the election was stolen.”

Mostofsky has labored as an assistant architect in New York. His father, Steven Mostofsky, is a state court docket judge in Brooklyn.

“The fact that his father is a decide signifies that he should have been better able than different defendants to understand why the claims of election fraud have been false,” mentioned Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg said none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and mates explain how he “went down this rabbit hole of election fantasy.”

“I hope at this point you understand that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic state of affairs,” the decide added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded responsible in February to a felony cost of civil disorder and misdemeanor expenses of theft of government property and coming into and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Mostofsky was the primary Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil dysfunction conviction.

Mostofsky’s attorneys requested for a sentence of dwelling confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Defense attorney Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the crowd” and didn’t go to the Capitol to interfere with the peaceable switch of energy.

“He did things he mustn't have finished,” Smith stated. “However there’s a giant distinction between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and someone who finally ends up doing bad things when they find” themselves in a crowd.