Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

A New York Metropolis choose’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 Decide James Boasberg mentioned Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the front lines” 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 residence and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the choose informed Mostofsky, 35.

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

Mostofsky had asked the choose 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 cope with that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who should report to jail 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 advised a buddy 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 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 transfer of power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A primary jury trial for 5 of 9 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start on Sept. 26 and is expected to last about a month. A second trial for the opposite 4 defendants is scheduled to begin on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to provide protection legal professionals extra time to organize for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. Just a few protection attorneys expressed concern about the doable impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the identical time as the first trial. Mehta mentioned that wouldn’t be a cause for another delay, “even if 435 members of Congress start reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded responsible, mostly to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded guilty on Friday to assaulting Metropolitan Police Department 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 Young, pleaded responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously 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 phrases of imprisonment ranging from 14 days to five years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing guidelines beneficial a prison sentence starting from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors beneficial 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 space around the Capitol and among the many first to breach the constructing itself, via the Senate Wing doorways, in keeping with prosecutors. He pushed in opposition to a police barrier that officers had been attempting to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot protect, prosecutors said.

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

Mostofsky incessantly wears costumes at events, in accordance with his lawyers.

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

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol through the riot. He instructed the reporter that he stormed the Capitol because “the election was stolen.”

Mostofsky has labored as an assistant architect in New York. His father, Steven Mostofsky, is a state courtroom choose in Brooklyn.

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

Boasberg mentioned not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and buddies explain how he “went down this rabbit hole of election fantasy.”

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

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony cost 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 primary Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil disorder conviction.

Mostofsky’s legal professionals requested for a sentence of dwelling confinement, probation and group service. Defense legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the group” and didn’t go to the Capitol to interfere with the peaceable transfer of energy.

“He did things he mustn't have done,” Smith stated. “But 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.