Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

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

U.S. District Choose James Boasberg stated Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the front strains” 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 dwelling and abroad, and that can’t be undone,” the judge advised Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to 1 12 months of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community 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 really feel sorry for the officers that needed to take care of that chaos,” mentioned Mostofsky, who should report to prison 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 told 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.

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 energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A primary jury trial for 5 of 9 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to begin on Sept. 26 and is predicted to last about a month. A second trial for the other four defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed to offer protection legal professionals extra time to organize for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A few protection attorneys expressed concern concerning the potential impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the same time as the primary trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a motive for an additional delay, “even when 435 members of Congress start studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 folks have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded guilty, 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 Younger, pleaded responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was significantly injured by rioters and has since testified before Congress about the attack.

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

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing tips really useful a jail sentence starting 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 many first rioters to enter the restricted area around the Capitol and among the first to breach the building itself, by the Senate Wing doorways, in accordance with prosecutors. He pushed in opposition to a police barrier that officers had been making an attempt to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot defend, prosecutors stated.

“Mostofsky cheered on different rioters as they clashed with police exterior the Capitol building, even celebrating with a fist-bump to considered one of his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a court docket 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 shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after coming into.

Mostofsky continuously wears costumes at events, in response to his attorneys.

“To place the matter with understatement, the New Yorker is quirky even by the requirements of his home city,” they wrote.

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

“The truth that his father is a decide signifies that he ought to have been higher able than other defendants to understand why the claims of election fraud had been false,” stated Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg mentioned not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and pals 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 charge of civil dysfunction and misdemeanor fees of theft of presidency property and entering and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds. Mostofsky was the primary Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil dysfunction conviction.

Mostofsky’s lawyers asked for a sentence of residence 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 interfere with the peaceable switch of energy.

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