Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get prison

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 Choose 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 home and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the decide informed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to 1 year of supervised release and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of community 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 had to deal with that chaos,” stated Mostofsky, who should report back to prison in roughly one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a walking stick and dressed in a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He advised a friend that the costume expressed his belief 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 power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A first 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 predicted to last a couple of month. A second trial for the other four defendants is scheduled to begin on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta agreed to present protection lawyers extra time to prepare for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. A number of defense attorneys expressed concern about the attainable affect if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the similar time as the primary trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a cause 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, principally 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 Young, pleaded responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress concerning the assault.

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

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing guidelines beneficial a jail sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors really useful a sentence of 15 months in jail followed by three years of supervised launch.

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted space across the Capitol and among the many first to breach the building itself, by means of the Senate Wing doorways, in accordance with prosecutors. He pushed in opposition to a police barrier that officers were trying to maneuver and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot defend, prosecutors said.

“Mostofsky cheered on different rioters as they clashed with police outside the Capitol building, even celebrating with a fist-bump to one among 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 shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after entering.

Mostofsky continuously wears costumes at occasions, in line with his lawyers.

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

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol in the course of the riot. He advised the reporter that he stormed the Capitol as a result of “the election was stolen.”

Mostofsky has worked as an assistant architect in New York. His father, Steven Mostofsky, is a state courtroom judge in Brooklyn.

“The truth that his father is a judge means that he ought to have been better able than different defendants to know why the claims of election fraud have been false,” stated Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg said none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and buddies 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 situation,” 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 getting into and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds. Mostofsky was the primary Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil dysfunction conviction.

Mostofsky’s legal professionals asked for a sentence of dwelling confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Defense legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the crowd” and didn’t go to the Capitol to interfere with the peaceful switch of energy.

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