Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets 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 prison.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the entrance 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 home and overseas, and that can’t be undone,” the decide instructed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to at least one yr of supervised release and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of group service and pay $2,000 in restitution.

Mostofsky had requested the choose 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,” mentioned Mostofsky, who should report to jail in roughly one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a walking stick and wearing a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He advised 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.

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 power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A first jury trial for five of 9 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start on Sept. 26 and is anticipated to final a couple of month. A second trial for the opposite 4 defendants is scheduled to begin on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to offer protection lawyers extra time to prepare for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. Just a few protection attorneys expressed concern in regards to the doable 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 cause for one more delay, “even when 435 members of Congress start reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 people have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded responsible, mostly to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded guilty 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 responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress concerning the attack.

Greater than 160 defendants have been sentenced, together with 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 pointers beneficial a prison sentence starting from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted area around the Capitol and among the first to breach the building itself, via the Senate Wing doorways, in response to prosecutors. He pushed towards a police barrier that officers had been attempting to move 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.

Inside 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 defend with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after coming into.

Mostofsky continuously wears costumes at occasions, in response to his lawyers.

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

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol through the riot. He instructed 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 judge in Brooklyn.

“The truth that his father is a decide means that he ought to have been higher ready than different defendants to know why the claims of election fraud had been false,” stated Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

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

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

Mostofsky’s attorneys asked for a sentence of house confinement, probation and group 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 peaceable transfer of energy.

“He did things he should not have finished,” Smith stated. “But there’s a giant difference between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and somebody who finally ends up doing bad issues once they discover” themselves in a crowd.