Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets jail

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

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg mentioned Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the entrance traces” 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 house and abroad, and that can’t be undone,” the judge told Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to 1 yr of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of neighborhood service and pay $2,000 in restitution.

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

“I really feel sorry for the officers that needed to take care of that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who must report back to jail 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 told a pal that the costume expressed his perception 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 peaceful transfer of power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A primary jury trial for 5 of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to begin on Sept. 26 and is expected to last a couple of month. A second trial for the other four defendants is scheduled to begin on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed to present protection attorneys extra time to prepare for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A number of defense attorneys expressed concern about the potential impression if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the similar time as the first trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a purpose for another delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 people have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded responsible, principally to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded guilty on Friday to assaulting Metropolitan Police Division 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 guilty on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress about the attack.

Greater than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including 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 beneficial a jail sentence starting from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors really helpful a sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised launch.

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted space around the Capitol and among the many first to breach the constructing itself, by means of the Senate Wing doors, based on prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers were attempting to maneuver and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors mentioned.

“Mostofsky cheered on other rioters as they clashed with police outdoors the Capitol constructing, even celebrating with a fist-bump to certainly one of his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a courtroom submitting.

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

Mostofsky incessantly wears costumes at events, in line with his attorneys.

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

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him contained in the Capitol in the course of the riot. He informed the reporter that he stormed the Capitol because “the election was stolen.”

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

“The truth that his father is a judge signifies that he ought to have been better able than other defendants to know why the claims of election fraud had been false,” said Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg stated not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and friends clarify how he “went down this rabbit hole of election fantasy.”

“I hope at this level you understand that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic scenario,” the choose added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor fees of theft of presidency property and getting into and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Mostofsky was the first Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil dysfunction conviction.

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

“He did things he mustn't have performed,” Smith said. “However there’s an enormous distinction between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and someone who ends up doing unhealthy issues after they find” themselves in a crowd.