San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
‘Caveman’ sentenced to prison
A New York City judge’s son who stormed the U.S. Capitol wearing a furry “caveman“costume was sentenced to eight months in prison.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said Friday that Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the front lines” 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 judge told Mostofsky, 35.
Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to one year of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service and pay $2,000 in restitution.
Mostofsky had asked the judge for mercy, saying he was ashamed of his “contribution to the chaos of that day.”
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 belief 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 farright Oath Keepers militia group charged with conspiring to forcefully halt the peaceful transfer of power after President Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
A first jury trial for five of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start on Sept. 26 and is expected to last about a month. A second trial for the other four defendants is scheduled to start on Nov. 29.
A few defense attorneys expressed concern about the possible impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the same time as the first trial. But U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said that wouldn’t be a reason for another delay, “even if 435 members of Congress start reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”
More than 780 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.
More than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including over 60 who have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 14 days to five years and three months.
Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted area around the Capitol and among the first to breach the building itself, through the Senate Wing doors, according to prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers were trying to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors said.
Mostofsky’s father, Steven Mostofsky, is a state court judge in Brooklyn.