Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets prison

A New York City choose’s son who stormed the U.S. Capitol carrying a furry “caveman” costume was sentenced on Friday to eight months in prison.

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

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to 1 12 months of supervised launch and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community 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 feel sorry for the officers that had to deal with that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who must report to prison in approximately one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a strolling stick and dressed in a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He informed a pal 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 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 primary jury trial for five of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start on Sept. 26 and is expected to final about a month. A second trial for the other 4 defendants is scheduled to start on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta agreed to provide defense lawyers more time to arrange for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A number of protection 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 mentioned that wouldn’t be a reason for one more delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More 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 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 before Congress in regards to the attack.

More than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including over 60 who have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 14 days to 5 years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing tips really helpful a jail sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors really helpful a sentence of 15 months in jail adopted by three years of supervised release.

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted space around the Capitol and among the many first to breach the building itself, via the Senate Wing doors, based on prosecutors. He pushed towards a police barrier that officers have been making an attempt to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors stated.

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

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 shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after entering.

Mostofsky steadily wears costumes at occasions, in accordance with his legal professionals.

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

A New York Post reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol throughout the riot. He advised 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 judge in Brooklyn.

“The truth that his father is a choose signifies that he ought to have been higher ready than different defendants to know 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 household and friends clarify 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 judge added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded responsible 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 constructing 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 house confinement, probation and community service. Protection lawyer Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the group” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intervene with the peaceful transfer of energy.

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