WASHINGTON (CN) — The son of a Brooklyn judge must spend eight months behind bars after a video went viral showing him wearing a fur pelt and a police-issued ballistics vest inside the Capitol during last year’s insurrection.
Speaking through tears Friday, Aaron Mostofsky told U.S. District Judge James Boasberg that he had “no plans to go into the Capitol” when he traveled from New York to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, to attend then-President Donald Trump's so-called Stop the Steal rally.
“When it started getting chaotic ... I started to make bad decisions,” Mostofsky said.
The 35-year-old son of Kings County Supreme Court Judge Shlomo Mostofsky said that, by the time he reached the west front lawn of the Capitol, it “felt like a war zone” with the crowd pushing and tear gas in the air.
“I could’ve and should’ve walked away, but I walked towards the barrier, and I pushed back,” he said, referring to a police barricade separating officers guarding the Capitol from the mob.
Mostofsky said he feels sorry for the officers “that had to deal with that chaos,” and that he did not intend to harm them or celebrate their injuries.
As he neared the Capitol building, Mastofsky claims to have found a police shield abandoned on the ground, as well as a box of police vests. He admitted that, “even though it said police, I put one on.”
“I understand all my actions have consequences, but … please have mercy,” Mastofsky said, noting that he will be “living with many regrets that will follow me into the future.”
Mastofsky was arrested less than a week after the riot after a video went viral showing him telling a New York Post reporter that Democrat-voting states like New York “were stolen” in the 2020 election.
In the video, which lasts about 90 seconds, Mastofsky can be seen inside the Capitol during the riot wearing a fur pelt and the police vest while holding the shield.
“I don’t think 75 million people voted for Trump — I think it was close to 85 million,” he told the reporter.
He was released on $100,000 bond on the same day of his arrest and has since been wearing a GPS device while living with his older brother in Brooklyn. Mastofsky agreed to plead guilty on Jan. 27, 2022, to civil disorder, theft of government property, as well as entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, in exchange for the five more serious charges against him to be dropped. Prosecutors sought a sentence of 15 months behind bars, while Mostofsky insisted continuing home detention for a “significant” amount of time was sufficient.
In announcing the sentence on Friday, Boasberg reminded Mostofsky that he was “literally on the front lines of this attack” when he was pushing against the police barricade, emerging as “one of the first 25 or so people” to enter the Capitol after the mob breached the Senate wing doors.
Without people like Mostofsky on the front lines pushing, Boasberg said the barricades would not have fallen, the Capitol would not have been breached, Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election would not have been interrupted, and people would not have been killed or suffered serious injuries.
The peaceful transition of power, he said, is the “cornerstone” of America's constitutional republic, and “what you and others did was nothing less than an attempt to undermine that system of government.”
“That being said,” Boasberg continued, Mostofsky spent only about 20 minutes inside the building.
“You aren’t yelling, screaming, inciting others,” Boasberg said, adding that he did not injure anyone or cause any property damage like other rioters.
The Obama appointee also brought up Mostofsky’s clean criminal record and lack of advanced planning.
“I do find that the remorse you displayed today … is genuine,” he told Mostofsky.
The judge also said he was “struck by the detail” in the more than 25 character letters penned by Mostofsky’s friends and family, as well as three rabbis, which describe him as a kind, religious man who serves as a “surrogate father” to several children. And according to his father, Mostofsky suffers from ADHD.
“Those [letters] do lessen the time that I’m going to give you because I believe that they … weigh in your favor,” Boasberg said, adding that “it seems like what you did was abnormal for you.”
Prosecutors saw intentionality in the pelt vest Mostovsky wore at the riot, noting that he had messaged a friend on Facebook during the melee that, “Even a caveman knows it was stolen," apparently in reference to the 2020 election
Boasberg distinguished Mostovsky, however, from those who intentionally injured police during the riot so they could storm the Capitol. He likened Mastofsky’s donning of the $1,095 police vest to “costuming” for a “fantasy game," and speculated that Mostovsky’s long history of wearing costume had some bearing on why Mostovsky “dressed up as a caveman” on Jan. 6. It was “almost as if it were a play, a performance,” the judge said.
Although there was no character letter on the “rabbit hole” of election fantasy that drove him to come to Washington, the judge said Mostovsky’s interest in fantasies like Star Wars seemingly played a role in him getting “sucked into the fantasy of a stolen election."
“When you get out of prison … focus on repeating what is good with your character,” the judge said. “Leave some of the fantasy world behind … Your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic situation."
On top of the eight months’ incarceration, Boasberg ordered Mastofsky to serve one year of supervised release and100 hours of community service, and to pay $2,000 in restitution and $150 in fees. The judge gave him 30 days to self-surrender.
As of April 6, nearly 800 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol.
Representatives for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia declined to speak about the sentencing Friday. Mostofsky’s attorney David Smith did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
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