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 jail.

U.S. District Choose James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “literally 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 may’t be undone,” the choose informed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to one year of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service and pay $2,000 in restitution.

Mostofsky had requested the decide 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,” stated Mostofsky, who must report back to prison in roughly one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a walking stick and wearing a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He advised 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.

Also 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 peaceable switch of energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A primary jury trial for five of 9 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start out on Sept. 26 and is anticipated to last a few 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 attorneys extra time to prepare for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. A number of protection attorneys expressed concern in regards to the potential impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the same time as the primary trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a motive for an additional delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 people have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded responsible, largely 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 guilty on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously injured by rioters and has since testified before 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 5 years and three months.

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

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted space around the Capitol and among the many first to breach the building itself, via the Senate Wing doors, in keeping with prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers have been making an attempt to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot defend, prosecutors said.

“Mostofsky cheered on different rioters as they clashed with police outdoors the Capitol building, even celebrating with a fist-bump to one in every of his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a court submitting.

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 protect with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after coming into.

Mostofsky frequently wears costumes at events, in response to his attorneys.

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

A New York Submit reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol during the riot. He instructed 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 choose in Brooklyn.

“The fact that his father is a choose implies that he ought to have been better ready than other defendants to grasp why the claims of election fraud have been false,” said Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

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

“I hope at this point 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 charge of civil disorder and misdemeanor fees 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 legal professionals requested for a sentence of residence confinement, probation and community service. Protection attorney Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the group” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intervene with the peaceable transfer of power.

“He did things he should not have performed,” Smith stated. “However there’s a big distinction between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and someone who ends up doing dangerous issues once they discover” themselves in a crowd.