Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

A New York Metropolis 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 Judge James Boasberg stated Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the front 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 house and abroad, and that may’t be undone,” the choose told Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to 1 12 months of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of group 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 feel sorry for the officers that needed to cope with that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who must report to jail 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 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.

Additionally 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 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 anticipated to last about a month. A second trial for the other four defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta agreed to offer protection lawyers more time to organize for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. Just a few protection attorneys expressed concern in regards to the doable impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the similar time as the first trial. Mehta mentioned that wouldn’t be a cause for another delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 individuals have been charged with federal crimes related 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 Department 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 significantly injured by rioters and has since testified before Congress about the attack.

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

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing pointers beneficial a prison sentence starting from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 months in prison adopted by three years of supervised release.

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted space around the Capitol and among the first to breach the constructing itself, by the Senate Wing doorways, in line with prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers were attempting to maneuver and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors said.

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

Inside the building, Mostofsky followed 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 getting into.

Mostofsky steadily wears costumes at occasions, based on his lawyers.

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

A New York Submit reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol during the riot. He told 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 truth that his father is a choose implies that he ought to have been higher able than different defendants to grasp why the claims of election fraud were false,” mentioned Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg mentioned not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and friends 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 state of affairs,” the choose added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony cost of civil disorder and misdemeanor fees of theft of government property and getting into and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds. Mostofsky was the first Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil disorder conviction.

Mostofsky’s attorneys requested for a sentence of residence confinement, probation and community service. Protection legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the group” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intrude with the peaceful transfer of power.

“He did issues he should not have achieved,” Smith mentioned. “However there’s a big difference between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and somebody who finally ends up doing dangerous things once they find” themselves in a crowd.