Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets jail

A New York Metropolis decide’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 Choose James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the entrance lines” of the mob’s assault 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 choose told Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to one 12 months of supervised release and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of community 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 feel sorry for the officers that needed to cope with that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who should report to prison in approximately one month.

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

Additionally on Friday, a federal decide 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 9 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to begin on Sept. 26 and is predicted to last a couple of month. A second trial for the other four defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to provide defense attorneys more time to prepare for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. Just a few protection attorneys expressed concern concerning the doable impression 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 purpose for another delay, “even if 435 members of Congress begin studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded guilty, principally to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded guilty 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 Young, pleaded guilty on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was critically injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress about the assault.

More than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including over 60 who've been sentenced to phrases of imprisonment starting from 14 days to 5 years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing pointers really useful a prison sentence starting from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 months in jail adopted by three years of supervised release.

Mostofsky was one of many 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, based on 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 defend, prosecutors said.

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

Inside the building, Mostofsky followed rioters who chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a staircase towards the Senate chambers. He took the police vest and defend with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after entering.

Mostofsky frequently wears costumes at occasions, based on his lawyers.

“To put the matter with understatement, the New Yorker is quirky even by the requirements of his dwelling city,” they wrote.

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

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

“The truth that his father is a choose means that he should have been higher ready than other defendants to grasp why the claims of election fraud were false,” mentioned Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg said not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s family and associates explain 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 state of affairs,” the choose added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of civil disorder and misdemeanor charges of theft of government property and entering and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds. Mostofsky was the primary Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil disorder conviction.

Mostofsky’s legal professionals asked for a sentence of dwelling confinement, probation and community service. Protection legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the gang” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intervene with the peaceable switch of power.

“He did issues he should not have executed,” Smith said. “But there’s a giant difference between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and someone who finally ends up doing dangerous issues after they find” themselves in a crowd.