Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

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 Decide James Boasberg mentioned Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the entrance lines” 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 may’t be undone,” the judge advised Mostofsky, 35.

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

Mostofsky had asked the choose for mercy, saying he was ashamed of his “contribution to the chaos of that day.”

“I feel sorry for the officers that needed to take care of that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who must report to prison 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 told a buddy 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 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 energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A first jury trial for five of nine 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 4 defendants is scheduled to begin 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. A few defense attorneys expressed concern about the doable influence if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the identical time as the primary trial. Mehta mentioned that wouldn’t be a cause for an additional delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 individuals have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded responsible, largely 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 about the attack.

More than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including over 60 who've been sentenced to phrases of imprisonment starting from 14 days to five years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing guidelines really useful a jail sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors really useful a sentence of 15 months in jail followed by three years of supervised release.

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted space around the Capitol and among the first to breach the constructing itself, by means of the Senate Wing doors, according to prosecutors. He pushed towards a police barrier that officers had been making an attempt to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot defend, prosecutors mentioned.

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

Contained in the constructing, Mostofsky followed rioters who chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a staircase towards the Senate chambers. He took the police vest and shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after entering.

Mostofsky frequently wears costumes at occasions, in response to his attorneys.

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

A New York Submit reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol in the course of the riot. He advised 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 choose in Brooklyn.

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

Boasberg stated none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s family and associates clarify 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 decide added.

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

Mostofsky’s attorneys asked for a sentence of residence confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Defense attorney 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 issues he should not have completed,” Smith said. “But there’s a big distinction between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and someone who ends up doing bad issues once they discover” themselves in a crowd.