Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

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

U.S. District Decide James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the front lines” 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, both at dwelling and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the choose advised Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to at least one year of supervised release and ordered him to carry out 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 needed to take care of that chaos,” mentioned Mostofsky, who must report back to prison in approximately one month.

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

Additionally on Friday, a federal choose 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 switch of energy 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 start on Sept. 26 and is anticipated to last about a month. A second trial for the opposite 4 defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed to give defense lawyers extra time to prepare for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. A few defense attorneys expressed concern about the potential influence if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the identical time as the primary trial. Mehta mentioned that wouldn’t be a purpose for another delay, “even when 435 members of Congress start reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 individuals 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 guilty on Friday to assaulting Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone. Head pulled Fanone right 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 critically injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress in regards to the attack.

More than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including over 60 who've been sentenced to phrases of imprisonment starting from 14 days to five years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing tips beneficial a prison sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 months in prison adopted by three years of supervised launch.

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

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

Inside the constructing, Mostofsky followed 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 getting into.

Mostofsky ceaselessly wears costumes at occasions, based on his attorneys.

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

A New York Submit reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol through the riot. He informed the reporter that he stormed the Capitol as a result of “the election was stolen.”

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

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

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

“I hope at this level you perceive that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic state of affairs,” the choose added.

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

Mostofsky’s attorneys asked for a sentence of residence confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Defense legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the crowd” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intervene with the peaceful transfer of power.

“He did things he mustn't have performed,” Smith mentioned. “But there’s a big difference between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and someone who finally ends up doing dangerous things when they find” themselves in a crowd.