Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

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

U.S. District Decide James Boasberg mentioned 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, both at home and overseas, and that can’t be undone,” the choose informed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to at least one yr of supervised release and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of neighborhood 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 cope with that chaos,” mentioned Mostofsky, who must report back to prison in roughly one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a strolling stick and wearing a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He told a friend 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 peaceable switch of energy 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 start on Sept. 26 and is expected to final a few month. A second trial for the other 4 defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to give defense legal professionals extra time to arrange for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A few protection attorneys expressed concern about the possible influence 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 when 435 members of Congress start reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated 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 Young, pleaded responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously injured by rioters and has since testified before Congress about the assault.

Greater than 160 defendants have been sentenced, together with 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 guidelines recommended a jail sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors really useful a sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted space across the Capitol and among the many first to breach the constructing itself, through the Senate Wing doors, according to prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers had been trying to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors mentioned.

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

Contained in 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 shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after entering.

Mostofsky frequently wears costumes at events, according to his attorneys.

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

A New York Publish reporter interviewed him contained in the Capitol in the course of the riot. He instructed 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 decide in Brooklyn.

“The truth that his father is a judge signifies that he should have been higher able than different defendants to understand why the claims of election fraud were false,” stated Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg said none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and mates 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 decide added.

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

Mostofsky’s lawyers requested for a sentence of residence confinement, probation and group service. Protection 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 peaceable switch of power.

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