'Caveman' Capitol Rioter, Brooklyn Judge's Son Pleads Guilty: DOJ

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn judge's son who became one of the first arrested after the U.S. Capitol riot when a meme of him surfaced in a fur coat and stolen police vest has pleaded guilty to charges in the case, according to prosecutors.

Aaron Mostofsky, 35, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony civil disorder charge and misdemeanor charges of theft of government property and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, according to the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney's Office.

Mostofsky, the son of Brooklyn Judge Shlomo Mostofsky, had originally pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and had been awaiting trial, according to court records from earlier this year.

His case comes more than a year after he was arrested in Brooklyn on Jan. 12, 2021, just six days after the insurrection.

At the time, federal investigators had linked Mostofsky to a meme of him standing inside the Capitol with the police vest and shield he was accused of stealing, captioned: "Imagine coming off 10 hits of acid and u look around and ur in the U.S. Capitol like s***."

The meme became one of the final pieces of evidence leading to his arrest, documents show.

"Your famous," an Instagram user told Mostofsky the day after the riot, sending him the meme and misspelling "you're."

"IK [I know] unfortunately," Mostofsky replied. "...Cause now people actually know me."

Mostofsky, who investigators said was "dressed as a caveman," was among a crowd of rioters who overwhelmed a police perimeter outside the Capitol building, eventually using his body weight to break another police line at the Capitol steps, according to the U.S. attorney.

He then headed toward the Senate Wing door, picking up and putting on a U.S. Capitol Police bullet-proof vest on the way, prosecutors said.

"Minutes later, the crowd broke windows next to the Senate Wing Door, entered the Capitol, and broke the door open from inside the building," they wrote. "Mostofsky entered through the door at 2:13 p.m., about the 12th person to get inside that way."

Mostofsky, who gave an interview to a reporter while inside the building, found a U.S. Capitol Police riot shield that had been set aside by another rioter and carried it until he left the building, prosecutors said. He was stripped of the shield by a U.S. Capitol Police officer a short time after, according to prosecutors.

The 35-year-old is to be sentenced in May and faces up to five years in prison on the felony charge and a $250,000 fine. Each of the misdemeanors carries up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000, according to prosecutors.

Mostofsky is one of at least eight Brooklynites facing charges in the U.S. Capitol insurrection.

The riot — which aimed to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's presidential election victory — left five people dead either before, during or shortly after the insurrection. One person was shot by Capitol police, another died from a drug overdose and three perished from natural causes.

Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months.

Read More:

• Brooklyn's Alleged Insurrectionists: Where Cases Stand 1 Yr Later
• How A Meme Helped Feds Link BK Judge's Son To Capitol Siege
• Son Of Brooklyn Judge Who Attended Capitol Riot Arrested: Report