Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets jail

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

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said 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 house and overseas, and that can’t be undone,” the choose instructed Mostofsky, 35.

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

Mostofsky had requested 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 cope with that chaos,” stated 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 informed a friend that the costume expressed his belief 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 peaceful switch of energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A primary jury trial for five of 9 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start out on Sept. 26 and is expected to last a few 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 present protection legal professionals extra time to prepare for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A number of defense attorneys expressed concern concerning the attainable impression if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the similar time as the first trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a purpose for another delay, “even if 435 members of Congress start studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 folks have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded responsible, 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 Young, pleaded responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was severely 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've been sentenced to terms 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 recommended a sentence of 15 months in jail followed by three years of supervised launch.

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted space across the Capitol and among the first to breach the building itself, by way of the Senate Wing doors, in keeping with prosecutors. He pushed towards a police barrier that officers had been attempting to maneuver and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot defend, prosecutors stated.

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

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 coming into.

Mostofsky steadily wears costumes at occasions, in response to his legal professionals.

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

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol during the riot. He informed the reporter that he stormed the Capitol as a result of “the election was stolen.”

Mostofsky has worked 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 judge signifies that he should have been better ready than other defendants to understand why the claims of election fraud have been false,” stated Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg stated not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s family and friends 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 judge added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded responsible in February to a felony cost of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor expenses of theft of presidency property and getting into and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Mostofsky was the primary Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil dysfunction conviction.

Mostofsky’s attorneys requested for a sentence of house confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Protection attorney Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the group” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intervene with the peaceable switch of power.

“He did issues he shouldn't have achieved,” Smith said. “But there’s a giant distinction between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and somebody who ends up doing unhealthy things after they discover” themselves in a crowd.