Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets jail

A New York Metropolis decide’s son who stormed the U.S. Capitol wearing 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 entrance traces” 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, each at dwelling and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the decide advised Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to at least one 12 months of supervised launch 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 really feel sorry for the officers that had to take care of that chaos,” stated Mostofsky, who should report back to jail in roughly one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a strolling stick and dressed in a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He informed a pal that the costume expressed his perception that “even a caveman” would know that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

Additionally 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 power 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 anticipated to final about a month. A second trial for the opposite four defendants is scheduled to start on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to present protection lawyers extra time to arrange for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A couple of defense attorneys expressed concern concerning the doable impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the identical time as the primary trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a motive for another delay, “even if 435 members of Congress start 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, principally 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 Younger, pleaded guilty on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was significantly injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress concerning the attack.

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

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing tips recommended a jail sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors advisable a sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised launch.

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted space around the Capitol and among the first to breach the building itself, by means of the Senate Wing doors, based on 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 protect, prosecutors stated.

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

Inside the building, Mostofsky followed 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 entering.

Mostofsky regularly wears costumes at events, in response to his lawyers.

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

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol during 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 choose in Brooklyn.

“The truth that his father is a choose means that he should have been better able than different defendants to grasp why the claims of election fraud had been false,” said Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg mentioned none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and friends explain how he “went down this rabbit gap of election fantasy.”

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

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded responsible in February to a felony cost of civil disorder and misdemeanor prices of theft of presidency property and getting into and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds. Mostofsky was the first Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil dysfunction conviction.

Mostofsky’s legal professionals asked for a sentence of house confinement, probation and group service. Protection lawyer Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the gang” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intervene with the peaceable transfer of power.

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