Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get prison

A New York Metropolis choose’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 “actually 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, both at residence and abroad, and that can’t be undone,” the judge advised Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to one year of supervised release and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of group 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 feel sorry for the officers that needed to cope with that chaos,” mentioned Mostofsky, who should report back 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 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 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 power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A first jury trial for five 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 about a month. A second trial for the other four defendants is scheduled to start on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed to present defense attorneys extra time to arrange for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A number of protection attorneys expressed concern in regards to the potential impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the identical time as the primary trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a reason for an additional delay, “even when 435 members of Congress start reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 folks 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 responsible 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 guilty on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was significantly injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress about the assault.

Greater 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 guidelines recommended a jail sentence starting from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors beneficial a sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted area across the Capitol and among the many first to breach the constructing itself, by the Senate Wing doors, in accordance with prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers had been making an attempt 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 one in every of his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a court docket submitting.

Inside 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 getting into.

Mostofsky regularly wears costumes at events, based on his legal professionals.

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

A New York Submit reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol throughout the riot. He informed 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 fact that his father is a decide means that he ought to have been better ready than other defendants to grasp why the claims of election fraud had been false,” stated Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg mentioned none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and pals 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 scenario,” the decide added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony cost of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor charges of theft of presidency property and coming 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 lawyers asked for a sentence of house 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 intervene with the peaceable transfer of power.

“He did issues he shouldn't have accomplished,” Smith mentioned. “However there’s an enormous distinction between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and somebody who finally ends up doing dangerous things after they find” themselves in a crowd.