Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets jail

A New York City judge’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 Choose James Boasberg mentioned Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the front traces” 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, each at house and abroad, and that may’t be undone,” the judge instructed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to at least one year of supervised launch and ordered him to perform 200 hours of neighborhood service and pay $2,000 in restitution.

Mostofsky had requested the choose for mercy, saying he was ashamed of his “contribution to the chaos of that day.”

“I feel sorry for the officers that had to cope with that chaos,” mentioned Mostofsky, who must report 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 buddy 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 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 peaceable transfer of energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A primary jury trial for five of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start out on Sept. 26 and is expected to last a few month. A second trial for the opposite four defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to provide protection legal professionals extra time to prepare for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. A couple of protection attorneys expressed concern in regards to the attainable impression if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the similar time as the first trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a motive for one more 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 guilty, mostly 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 critically injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress about the attack.

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

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

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted area across the Capitol and among the first to breach the building itself, through the Senate Wing doors, in accordance with prosecutors. He pushed towards a police barrier that officers had been trying to maneuver and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot protect, prosecutors stated.

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

Contained in the building, Mostofsky adopted rioters who chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a staircase towards the Senate chambers. He took the police vest and protect with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after getting into.

Mostofsky often wears costumes at events, in line with his attorneys.

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

A New York Publish reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol throughout 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 court docket choose in Brooklyn.

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

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

“I hope at this point 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 prices of theft of presidency property and coming 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 attorneys requested for a sentence of home confinement, probation and community service. Protection attorney 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 energy.

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