Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get prison

A New York Metropolis decide’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 mentioned Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the entrance 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 home and abroad, and that can’t be undone,” the choose told Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to one year of supervised release and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of neighborhood 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 needed to cope with that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who should report to prison 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 told a good 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 judge 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 primary jury trial for five of 9 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, together with group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to begin on Sept. 26 and is anticipated to last a few 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 give defense attorneys more time to organize for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. A few defense attorneys expressed concern in regards to the possible influence if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the same time as the primary trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a motive for another delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin studying from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded guilty, largely 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 significantly injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress in regards to the attack.

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

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

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted space across the Capitol and among the many first to breach the constructing itself, via the Senate Wing doorways, in line with prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers were trying to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot protect, prosecutors said.

“Mostofsky cheered on other rioters as they clashed with police outdoors the Capitol building, even celebrating with a fist-bump to certainly one 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 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 steadily wears costumes at events, in accordance with his lawyers.

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

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

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

Boasberg stated not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and buddies clarify how he “went down this rabbit gap of election fantasy.”

“I hope at this level you understand that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic state of affairs,” the choose added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of civil disorder and misdemeanor charges of theft of government 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 attorneys asked for a sentence of dwelling confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Defense 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 mustn't have carried out,” Smith said. “But there’s a big distinction between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and someone who ends up doing dangerous things after they discover” themselves in a crowd.