Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

A New York Metropolis choose’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 Choose James Boasberg said 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, both at house and overseas, and that can’t be undone,” the choose instructed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to 1 year of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of group service and pay $2,000 in restitution.

Mostofsky had requested the judge 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 cope with that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who should report 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 advised a 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.

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 peaceable switch of power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A primary jury trial for 5 of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to begin on Sept. 26 and is predicted to final a few month. A second trial for the other 4 defendants is scheduled to start on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to offer protection legal professionals more time to arrange for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant one other delay. A number of protection attorneys expressed concern about the doable impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the same time as the first trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a motive for one more delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded guilty, principally 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 guilty on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress concerning the attack.

More than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including 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 pointers beneficial a prison sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors advisable a sentence of 15 months in prison adopted by three years of supervised launch.

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted area across the Capitol and among the first to breach the constructing itself, by means of the Senate Wing doors, in line with prosecutors. He pushed in opposition to a police barrier that officers were making an attempt to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot protect, prosecutors said.

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

Inside 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 defend with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after getting into.

Mostofsky regularly wears costumes at occasions, in line with his attorneys.

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

A New York Submit reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol throughout the riot. He instructed 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 fact that his father is a judge signifies that he should have been better in a position than other defendants to know why the claims of election fraud had been false,” mentioned Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg said not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s household and pals explain how he “went down this rabbit hole of election fantasy.”

“I hope at this level you perceive that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic situation,” 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 disorder conviction.

Mostofsky’s lawyers requested for a sentence of residence confinement, probation and group service. Defense attorney Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the group” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intervene with the peaceful transfer of energy.

“He did issues he mustn't have performed,” Smith mentioned. “However there’s a giant distinction between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and somebody who ends up doing unhealthy things when they discover” themselves in a crowd.