Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets prison

A New York Metropolis 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 Judge James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “literally 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 overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the choose informed Mostofsky, 35.

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

Mostofsky had asked 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 cope with that chaos,” stated Mostofsky, who should report back to prison in roughly one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a strolling stick and dressed in a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He instructed 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 peaceable 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, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start out on Sept. 26 and is predicted 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 give defense lawyers more time to organize for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. A couple of defense attorneys expressed concern in regards to the doable affect if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the same time as the primary trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a cause for one more 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 guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded guilty 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 responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was significantly injured by rioters and has since testified before Congress in regards to the attack.

More 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 prison sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 months in jail adopted by three years of supervised release.

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted area across the Capitol and among the first to breach the constructing itself, by the Senate Wing doorways, in keeping with prosecutors. He pushed in opposition to a police barrier that officers had been trying to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors said.

“Mostofsky cheered on different rioters as they clashed with police exterior the Capitol constructing, even celebrating with a fist-bump to one among 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 toward the Senate chambers. He took the police vest and defend with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after coming into.

Mostofsky incessantly wears costumes at occasions, in response to his legal professionals.

“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 inside the Capitol during the riot. He told 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 decide in Brooklyn.

“The fact that his father is a choose signifies that he should have been better able than other defendants to understand why the claims of election fraud were false,” said Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg said none 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 perceive that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic situation,” the choose added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded responsible in February to a felony cost of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor prices of theft of presidency property and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Mostofsky was the first Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil dysfunction conviction.

Mostofsky’s lawyers requested for a sentence of house confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Defense attorney Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the crowd” and didn’t go to the Capitol to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.

“He did things he mustn't have achieved,” Smith mentioned. “However there’s a giant difference between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and somebody who finally ends up doing dangerous issues when they discover” themselves in a crowd.