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 prison.

U.S. District Decide James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the entrance 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, each at home and abroad, and that may’t be undone,” the choose advised Mostofsky, 35.

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

Mostofsky had asked the decide 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 must report to jail in approximately one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a strolling stick and wearing a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He informed a pal 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 peaceful transfer of energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A first jury trial for 5 of 9 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to begin on Sept. 26 and is expected to last about a 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 defense attorneys extra time to arrange for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. Just a few defense attorneys expressed concern in regards to the attainable influence if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the similar time as the primary trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a cause 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 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 Younger, pleaded responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was significantly injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress concerning the attack.

Greater than 160 defendants have been sentenced, together with over 60 who've been sentenced to phrases of imprisonment ranging from 14 days to five years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing guidelines recommended a jail sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors beneficial a sentence of 15 months in prison 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 doors, according to prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers had been attempting to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot defend, prosecutors mentioned.

“Mostofsky cheered on other rioters as they clashed with police exterior the Capitol building, even celebrating with a fist-bump to one in all his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a courtroom submitting.

Inside the building, 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 entering.

Mostofsky incessantly wears costumes at occasions, in keeping with his attorneys.

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

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol during the riot. He advised 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 fact that his father is a judge means that he should have been better able than other defendants to grasp why the claims of election fraud have been false,” stated Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg mentioned not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s family and associates 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 situation,” the judge added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony cost of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor fees of theft of presidency property and getting 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 legal professionals requested for a sentence of dwelling confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Protection attorney Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the gang” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intrude with the peaceful transfer of energy.

“He did things he should not have done,” Smith stated. “But there’s a big difference between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and somebody who ends up doing bad issues once they find” themselves in a crowd.