Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

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

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg mentioned Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the front 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, both at home and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the decide advised Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to 1 year of supervised launch and ordered him to carry out 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 had to take care of that chaos,” stated Mostofsky, who must report back to jail 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 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 switch of power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

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

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to present protection legal professionals more time to arrange for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A few defense attorneys expressed concern about the possible affect if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the same time as the first trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a reason for another delay, “even when 435 members of Congress start reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 folks 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 guilty on Friday to assaulting Metropolitan Police Division Officer Michael Fanone. Head pulled Fanone 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 before Congress in regards to 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 5 years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing guidelines recommended a prison sentence starting 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 many first rioters to enter the restricted space around the Capitol and among the many first to breach the constructing itself, by way of the Senate Wing doors, according to prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers had been attempting to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors said.

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

Contained in 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 defend with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after entering.

Mostofsky ceaselessly wears costumes at events, in line with his legal professionals.

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

A New York Post reporter interviewed him contained in the Capitol during the riot. He informed 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 signifies that he should have been better in a position than other defendants to understand why the claims of election fraud had been false,” stated Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg said not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and associates clarify how he “went down this rabbit gap 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 guilty in February to a felony cost of civil disorder and misdemeanor prices of theft of government property and getting into and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds. Mostofsky was the primary 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 legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the gang” and didn’t go to the Capitol to interfere with the peaceable transfer of power.

“He did issues he shouldn't have carried out,” Smith stated. “But there’s a big difference between an ideologue who's motivated to commit violence and someone who ends up doing dangerous issues once they discover” themselves in a crowd.