Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume will get jail

A New York City decide’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 Decide James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the entrance traces” 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 house and overseas, and that may’t be undone,” the choose instructed Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to one 12 months of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of neighborhood 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,” stated Mostofsky, who must report back to jail in approximately one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a strolling stick and dressed in a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He told a pal 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 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 last a few month. A second trial for the opposite four defendants is scheduled to start out on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed to provide protection legal professionals extra time to organize for trial however indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A number of defense attorneys expressed concern concerning the potential impression if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report across the same time as the primary trial. Mehta mentioned that wouldn’t be a cause for another delay, “even if 435 members of Congress begin reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

Greater than 780 individuals have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded responsible, mostly to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded guilty on Friday to assaulting Metropolitan Police Department 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 Younger, pleaded responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was seriously injured by rioters and has since testified before Congress about the assault.

More than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including over 60 who have been sentenced to phrases of imprisonment starting from 14 days to five years and three months.

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

Mostofsky was one of many first rioters to enter the restricted area around the Capitol and among the first to breach the constructing itself, by the Senate Wing doorways, in keeping with prosecutors. He pushed towards a police barrier that officers have been attempting to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot protect, prosecutors stated.

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

Inside the constructing, Mostofsky adopted rioters who chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a staircase towards the Senate chambers. He took the police vest and shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after getting into.

Mostofsky continuously wears costumes at occasions, according to his legal professionals.

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

A New York Put up reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol during the riot. He told the reporter that he stormed the Capitol because “the election was stolen.”

Mostofsky has labored as an assistant architect in New York. His father, Steven Mostofsky, is a state court docket judge in Brooklyn.

“The truth that his father is a decide implies that he should have been higher ready than different defendants to grasp why the claims of election fraud have been false,” stated Justice Division 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 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 charge 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 attorneys requested for a sentence of house confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Defense legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the crowd” and didn’t go to the Capitol to intervene with the peaceable switch of power.

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