Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

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

U.S. District Decide James Boasberg stated Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the entrance 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 residence and overseas, and that can’t be undone,” the choose informed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to at least one year of supervised launch and ordered him to carry out 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 really feel sorry for the officers that needed to deal with that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who must report 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 instructed a good 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.

Additionally 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 energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A first jury trial for five of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start on Sept. 26 and is anticipated to last a couple of month. A second trial for the other four defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta agreed to provide protection lawyers extra time to prepare for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. Just a few protection attorneys expressed concern about the potential impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the same time as the first trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a reason for an additional delay, “even when 435 members of Congress start studying 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 responsible, principally 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 critically injured by rioters and has since testified before Congress about the assault.

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

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing pointers advisable a prison sentence starting from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors advisable a sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised launch.

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted space around the Capitol and among the many first to breach the building itself, by the Senate Wing doors, based on prosecutors. He pushed in opposition to a police barrier that officers had been attempting to maneuver and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot defend, prosecutors said.

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

Contained in the building, Mostofsky followed 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 entering.

Mostofsky regularly wears costumes at occasions, according to his attorneys.

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

A New York Post 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 labored as an assistant architect in New York. His father, Steven Mostofsky, is a state courtroom choose in Brooklyn.

“The truth that his father is a choose implies that he should have been better ready than other defendants to grasp why the claims of election fraud have been false,” mentioned Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg mentioned none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and friends explain how he “went down this rabbit gap of election fantasy.”

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

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of civil disorder and misdemeanor expenses 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 lawyers asked for a sentence of home confinement, probation and community 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 issues he should not have accomplished,” Smith stated. “But there’s a big difference between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and someone who finally ends up doing bad issues when they discover” themselves in a crowd.