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 “actually on the front lines” 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 house and overseas, and that can’t be undone,” the choose instructed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to at least 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 really feel sorry for the officers that had to cope with that chaos,” mentioned Mostofsky, who must report to prison in approximately one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a strolling stick and wearing a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He told 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 peaceful transfer of power 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 expected to last a couple of month. A second trial for the other 4 defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed to offer defense attorneys more time to prepare for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. Just a few defense attorneys expressed concern about the attainable impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the same time as the first trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a cause for another delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 folks have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded responsible, mostly 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 guilty on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was severely injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress concerning the assault.

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

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing guidelines really useful a prison sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors advisable a sentence of 15 months in jail adopted 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, by means of the Senate Wing doorways, based on prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers were making an attempt to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors mentioned.

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

Contained in 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 shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after coming into.

Mostofsky incessantly 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 Put up reporter interviewed him contained in the Capitol throughout the riot. He instructed the reporter that he stormed the Capitol because “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 choose means that he should have been higher ready than other defendants to grasp why the claims of election fraud have been false,” said Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

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

“I hope at this point you perceive that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic state of affairs,” the judge added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of civil disorder and misdemeanor expenses of theft of government property and coming into and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds. Mostofsky was the first Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil disorder conviction.

Mostofsky’s legal professionals asked for a sentence of home confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Protection legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the crowd” and didn’t go to the Capitol to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.

“He did things he shouldn't have done,” Smith mentioned. “However there’s a big difference between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and someone who ends up doing unhealthy things when they find” themselves in a crowd.