Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get prison

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 jail.

U.S. District Choose James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the entrance traces” 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 dwelling and abroad, and that can’t be undone,” the decide instructed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to 1 12 months of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service and pay $2,000 in restitution.

Mostofsky had requested the judge 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 take care of that chaos,” mentioned Mostofsky, who must 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 told 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 choose 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 energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A primary jury trial for 5 of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start on Sept. 26 and is predicted to last about a month. A second trial for the opposite four defendants is scheduled to begin on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta agreed to present defense legal professionals more time to prepare for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. Just a few protection attorneys expressed concern about the doable affect if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the similar time as the first trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a cause for another delay, “even if 435 members of Congress begin reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

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

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

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

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

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted area across the Capitol and among the first to breach the constructing itself, by way of the Senate Wing doorways, in response to prosecutors. He pushed in opposition to a police barrier that officers were attempting to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors mentioned.

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

Contained in the constructing, 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 ceaselessly wears costumes at occasions, in accordance with his lawyers.

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

A New York Submit reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol through the riot. He informed 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 judge in Brooklyn.

“The fact that his father is a choose signifies that he ought to have been higher able than different defendants to know why the claims of election fraud have been false,” said Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg stated none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s family and friends clarify how he “went down this rabbit gap of election fantasy.”

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

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded responsible in February to a felony charge of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor costs 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 dysfunction conviction.

Mostofsky’s legal professionals requested for a sentence of residence 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 intrude with the peaceful switch of power.

“He did issues he should not have accomplished,” Smith stated. “However there’s a giant difference between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and someone who ends up doing unhealthy issues when they discover” themselves in a crowd.