Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get prison

A New York Metropolis 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 Choose James Boasberg mentioned Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the front strains” 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 home and abroad, and that can’t be undone,” the choose advised Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to at least one yr of supervised launch and ordered him to carry out 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 had to take care of that chaos,” stated Mostofsky, who should report back to prison in approximately one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a walking stick and dressed in a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He told a 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.

Additionally 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 5 of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to begin on Sept. 26 and is anticipated to final a few month. A second trial for the opposite 4 defendants is scheduled to begin on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed to present defense attorneys extra time to organize for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. Just a few protection attorneys expressed concern in regards to the attainable influence if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the same time as the first trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a reason for an additional delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 people 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 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 severely injured by rioters and has since testified before Congress in regards to the assault.

More 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 pointers recommended a prison sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors beneficial 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 around the Capitol and among the many first to breach the building itself, by way of the Senate Wing doorways, in response to prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers had been attempting to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot protect, prosecutors mentioned.

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

Contained in 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 protect with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after getting into.

Mostofsky steadily wears costumes at events, in response to his lawyers.

“To put 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 through the riot. He told 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 decide in Brooklyn.

“The truth that his father is a decide implies that he ought to have been higher in a position than other defendants to know why the claims of election fraud have been false,” said Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg mentioned not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s family and buddies explain 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 scenario,” the choose added.

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

Mostofsky’s legal professionals asked for a sentence of dwelling 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 peaceable transfer of energy.

“He did issues he mustn't have completed,” Smith said. “However there’s an enormous difference between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and someone who ends up doing dangerous things after they discover” themselves in a crowd.