Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets prison

A New York Metropolis decide’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 Choose James Boasberg mentioned Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the front traces” 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 home and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the decide advised Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to one yr of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of neighborhood 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 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 walking 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 perception that “even a caveman” would know that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

Also on Friday, a federal decide 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 nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to begin on Sept. 26 and is expected to final a couple of month. A second trial for the opposite four defendants is scheduled to begin on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta agreed to offer protection lawyers more time to prepare for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. A few protection attorneys expressed concern about the attainable affect if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the similar time as the first trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a motive for another delay, “even when 435 members of Congress start reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 individuals have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded guilty, largely to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded guilty 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 critically injured by rioters and has since testified before Congress in regards to the attack.

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

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing guidelines advisable 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 the first rioters to enter the restricted space around the Capitol and among the first to breach the building itself, by way of the Senate Wing doorways, in keeping with prosecutors. He pushed towards a police barrier that officers were trying to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot protect, prosecutors mentioned.

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

Contained in the constructing, Mostofsky adopted 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 coming into.

Mostofsky steadily wears costumes at occasions, based on his legal professionals.

“To place 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 through 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 court docket choose in Brooklyn.

“The fact that his father is a judge implies that he ought to have been better ready than other defendants to know why the claims of election fraud had been false,” mentioned Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

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

“I hope at this point you understand that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic situation,” the judge added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded responsible in February to a felony cost of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor charges of theft of government 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 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 crowd” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intervene with the peaceable transfer of power.

“He did issues he mustn't have finished,” Smith stated. “But there’s a big distinction between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and somebody who ends up doing unhealthy things once they discover” themselves in a crowd.