Aaron Mostofsky (images via the FBI).
The son of a Brooklyn judge who memorably wore animal pelts and a bulletproof vest inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 has pleaded guilty to three charges, including a civil disorder charge that carries a potential five-year prison sentence.
Aaron Mostofsky, 35, appeared remotely before U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Wednesday. He pleaded guilty to civil disorder, a felony, and two misdemeanors: theft of government property and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.
The civil disorder charge carries a potential five-year prison sentence on top of a fine of up to $250,000. Each misdemeanor charge allows for a maximum of one year in jail and a fine of up to $100,000.
Mostofsky first made headlines after Jan. 6 as the pelt-wearing, riot-shield-carrying son of a Brooklyn judge who was spotted inside the Capitol after mobs of Donald Trump supporters overran police and breached the building in order to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden‘s win in the 2020 presidential election.
Days later, federal agents later found him holed up at his brother’s home in Brooklyn. He was arrested and taken into custody, but he was eventually released after a raucous bail hearing.
Under an eight-count superseding indictment handed down in November, Mostofsky faced a charge of obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, which carries a potential 20-year prison sentence. That indictment dropped a felony charge of theft of government property that included a potential 10-year prison sentence.
Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee, told Mostofsky at Wednesday’s hearing that he could potentially sentence him to a total of seven years in prison.
Mostofsky admitted that he joined a group of rioters near an area known as the Peace Circle. Those rioters were pushing against a police line that was trying to adjust a barricade. Mostofsky wasn’t at the front lines of that group of rioters, but he did join them by “lending [his] weight and strength to the efforts,” Boasberg said.
Mostofsky also admitted to picking up a Capitol Police vest and putting it on while he was at the capitol building’s Senate Wing door. He acknowledged that he entered the structure just moments after the initial breach at the Senate Wing door, and he admitted to taking a police vest and riot shield with him when he left the building less than 30 minutes later.
Mostofsky’s father is Kings County Supreme Court Judge Shlomo Mostofsky, the former president of the National Council of Young Israel. He was elected to the bench in January 2020 with the backing of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
Despite Democratic support for his father, Mostofsky himself is an ardent fan of former president Trump.
“We were cheated,” Mostofsky told the New York Post during an interview from inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6. “I don’t think 75 million people voted for Trump — I think it was close to 85 million. I think certain states that have been red for a long time turned blue and were stolen, like New York.”
As Law&Crime previously noted, a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won the Empire State since 1984.
Boasberg set Mostofsky’s sentencing for May 6, 2020.
[Images via FBI.]
