Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets jail

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

U.S. District Decide James Boasberg stated Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the entrance strains” 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 dwelling and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the judge told Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to at least one year of supervised release and ordered him to carry out 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 had to deal with that chaos,” mentioned Mostofsky, who must report back to jail in approximately 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 good 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 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 peaceful switch of power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A first jury trial for five of 9 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start out on Sept. 26 and is anticipated 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 provide defense attorneys extra 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 possible influence if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the same time as the first trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a cause for one more delay, “even when 435 members of Congress start studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 folks have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded guilty, principally to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded responsible on Friday to assaulting Metropolitan Police Division 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 guilty on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress about the assault.

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

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

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted area across the Capitol and among the many first to breach the building itself, by the Senate Wing doors, according to prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers have been making an attempt to maneuver 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 considered one of his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Inside 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 ceaselessly 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 dwelling city,” they wrote.

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol in the course of the riot. He instructed 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 judge in Brooklyn.

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

Boasberg said not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s family and mates explain how he “went down this rabbit gap of election fantasy.”

“I hope at this point you understand that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic state of affairs,” the decide added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded responsible in February to a felony charge of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor costs of theft of government property and coming into and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds. Mostofsky was the primary Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil disorder conviction.

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

“He did issues he should not have completed,” Smith mentioned. “But there’s an enormous distinction between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and somebody who finally ends up doing dangerous things after they find” themselves in a crowd.