Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets jail

A New York City decide’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 Judge James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the front 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 house and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the choose advised Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to at least one 12 months of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of neighborhood service and pay $2,000 in restitution.

Mostofsky had asked the choose 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,” stated Mostofsky, who should 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 advised a good 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 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 peaceable switch of energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A first jury trial for five of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start out on Sept. 26 and is predicted to last about a month. A second trial for the other 4 defendants is scheduled to start on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed to offer protection lawyers more time to organize for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other 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 said that wouldn’t be a purpose for an additional delay, “even when 435 members of Congress start reading 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, principally 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 seriously injured by rioters and has since testified before Congress concerning the attack.

Greater than 160 defendants have been sentenced, together with over 60 who have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment starting from 14 days to 5 years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing guidelines beneficial a prison sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors really helpful a sentence of 15 months in jail 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 first to breach the constructing itself, by way of the Senate Wing doors, according to prosecutors. He pushed towards a police barrier that officers were attempting to maneuver 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 building, even celebrating with a fist-bump to one of his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a court docket filing.

Contained in 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 getting into.

Mostofsky incessantly wears costumes at occasions, in keeping with his lawyers.

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

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him contained in the Capitol through 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 courtroom choose in Brooklyn.

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

Boasberg mentioned not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and associates clarify 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 decide added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony cost of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor expenses 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 dysfunction conviction.

Mostofsky’s attorneys requested for a sentence of house confinement, probation and community service. Protection lawyer Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the group” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intrude with the peaceable transfer of power.

“He did issues he shouldn't have accomplished,” Smith stated. “However there’s an enormous difference between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and somebody who finally ends up doing bad things after they find” themselves in a crowd.