Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get prison

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

U.S. District Decide James Boasberg stated Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the entrance 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 home and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the judge informed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to one year 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 feel sorry for the officers that needed to take care of that chaos,” stated Mostofsky, who should report 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 informed 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 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 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 expected to last a couple of month. A second trial for the other 4 defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta agreed to present protection lawyers extra time to arrange for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. A few defense attorneys expressed concern concerning the doable impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the same time as the primary trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a purpose for one more delay, “even if 435 members of Congress begin studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 people have been charged with federal crimes related 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 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 before Congress in regards to the attack.

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

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

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted space across the Capitol and among the many first to breach the building itself, by way of the Senate Wing doors, in line with prosecutors. He pushed towards a police barrier that officers had been making an attempt to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors said.

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

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

Mostofsky continuously wears costumes at occasions, based on his legal professionals.

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

A New York Publish reporter interviewed him contained in the Capitol throughout 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 truth that his father is a decide means that he should have been better in a position than other defendants to understand why the claims of election fraud had been false,” stated Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg stated none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and associates 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 situation,” the judge added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded responsible in February to a felony cost of civil disorder and misdemeanor costs 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 lawyers requested for a sentence of residence confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Protection legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the group” and didn’t go to the Capitol to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.

“He did issues he should not have finished,” Smith said. “However there’s a giant difference between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and somebody who finally ends up doing bad things after they discover” themselves in a crowd.