WASHINGTON — A man whose family members were key architects of the American conservative movement was sentenced Friday to three years and nine months in federal prison for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that included breaking windows who allowed the mob to storm the building during the initial breach.
Federal Public Ministry wanted for over 11 years in prison and an increase in terrorism for Brent Bozell IVson of Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell III and grandson of Joe McCarthy’s speechwriter Brent Bozell Jr., who was William F. Buckley Jr.’s brother-in-law and ghostwriter of “The Conscience of a Conservative” by Barry Goldwater. “
But Judge John Bates sentenced Bozell IV to 45 months in prison and $4,727 in restitution on Friday. Bates found that the plain language of the terrorism-enhancing statute would apply to Bozell’s case, saying it’s “a little hard for me to escape” that conclusion. But Bates disagreed with the huge impact this would have on Bozell’s sentence range and seemed uncomfortable labeling a man with a leading role in the politically motivated attack on the U.S. Capitol as a domestic terrorist.
“I’m not sure that label is appropriate for the defendant to carry with him,” Bates said, noting that although Bozell broke windows that allowed the mob to break into the building and joined the mob when it broke through several police lines, his conduct did not it was “significantly violent” and he did not cause any physical harm to the officers. found that Bozell was “leaning toward the officers with his head down” and made “forcible” contact with the officers as the mob attacked a police line. He also found that Bozell repeatedly lied about his conduct.
Bates also took the opportunity to indirectly reject the rhetoric that Republican politicians have used about the January 6 defendants.
“Not for a moment should the Jan. 6 protesters be considered true patriots,” said Bates, a George W. Bush appointee. “They are not political prisoners. They are not hostages.”
The Jan. 6 protesters now face the consequences of their actions based on fair, impartial and uniform application of the law, Bates said.
Bozell, with his father sitting in the courtroom gallery, apologized for his actions in court, saying he had “tainted” his family forever. “I don’t recognize the person in these videos,” Bozell said, vowing to spend the rest of his life making sure what he did on Jan. 6 was not his life story.
But Bozell notably did not say he now realizes he was misled about the 2020 election or blame the former president donald trumplies for his conduct, as did many of the January 6th defendants.
Asked by NBC News after the sentencing whether he still believed the 2020 election was “stolen,” as Trump falsely claimed before the attack, Bozell declined to comment. (In carefully worded language, Bozell’s defense sentencing memorandum says only that Bozell “accepts that the President of the United States is Joe Biden,” which is the same tactic that Republican politicians have used to avoid discussing in detail his beliefs about the 2020 elections.)
On January 6, 2021, Bozell joined the pro-Trump mob when it broke through police lines and broke windows during the initial storming of the Capitol. He stood shoulder to shoulder with members of the far-right Proud Boys, as well as an anti-abortion rights advocate accused of conspiring to kill FBI employees who worked on his January 6 case.
Bozell entered the Senate gallery and then the Senate floor. He also joined the mob during another violent breach of the Capitol rotunda doors, which allowed other rioters to storm the building.
Prosecutors say Bozell “led the charge” on Jan. 6 because he “believed the presidential election had been ‘stolen’ and therefore planned to respond through violence.” They are seeking an increase in terrorism sentences – the same given to five members of the Proud Boys, four of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy — saying Bozell’s actions “demonstrated a clear intent to prevent Congress from certifying the election results through the use of physical force and destruction of property,” conduct that “is a quintessential example of an intent to influence and retaliate against government conduct through intimidation or coercion and justifies the application of enhanced terrorism.”
Prosecutors also cited Bozell’s comments that the “Capitol siege was morally justified” and his references to former Vice President Mike Pence as a “traitor” as evidence of his intent to engage in an act of domestic terrorism.
On a judicial filing This week, prosecutors said they won terrorism sentencing enhancements in some Jan. 6 cases, including against Proud Boys like Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in federal prisonthe longest sentence in any January 6 case.
Prosecutors also said Bozell “presented outrageous justifications for his conduct on January 6 that were inconsistent with the video evidence and implausible” during his trial testimony, which led him to conviction in September on a series of charges, including five felonies.
Bozell was caught with the help in online detectivesas well as local residents who recognized him because he was wearing a sweatshirt with the name of the school his children attended in Pennsylvania.
The prosecution’s sentencing memorandum mentions that Bozell sent a text message to his brother to try to get their father to retract his public condemnation of violence after January 6. defense lawyers wrote that Bozell was part of a family that was “very personally and emotionally ‘invested’ in the ultimate outcome of the 2020 election” and that Bozell is “ashamed that he broke windows of the U.S. Capitol and entered through them.”
Bozell’s father wrote a letter of support, saying he had “remained silent for the past 3 1/2 years” so as not to “overturn the apple cart of justice” he now believed in – especially because of the decision to seek a boost from anti-terrorism sentences – that “there is more at stake” in your son’s case.
“I’m not claiming my son’s innocence, just that his punishment fits the crime. I am asking the Court to consider my son’s character which is excellent and is being defended by absolutely everyone around him,” Bozell III wrote.
Bozell III founded the Council on Parents, Television and Media in 1995, when his son, now in his early 40s, was a teenager. The organization targeted shows like “Friends,” “Dawson’s Creek” and “Spin City,” as well as video games like “Mortal Kombat.” Bozell III had said during the 2016 presidential campaign that Donald Trump “could be the biggest charlatan of all,” but he focused on defending Trump, even writing a 2019 book titled “Unmasked: The Mainstream Media’s War on Trump.” .
Bozell’s grandfather was “convicted of assaulting a police officer with a five-foot wooden cross” after leading an anti-abortion attack on a Washington, D.C., clinic in 1970. according to his 1997 obituary in The Washington Post.
On Friday, Bozell’s attorney, Eric Snyder, argued that although Bozell “is many things,” he is not a terrorist.
“Good people do bad things,” Snyder said. “This is a good person who did a terrible thing.”
Bozell is “a lucky man” who “had all these advantages,” Synder said, calling him “fortunate.” He said Bozell was aware that he had “tarnished the name of a good family,” saying the Bozells were also known for their other work outside of politics.
Bozell himself addressed the police officers present, as well as his family and the judge.
“I can’t apologize enough,” he said, adding that the “devastating reality” of what he did had an impact not only on him, but also on his family, adding that he was not raised that way.
“I don’t know what happened that day and I can’t apologize enough,” Bozell said, adding that he has corrected people he encountered who said they supported what he did on Jan. 6.
He also apologized to the people of D.C., noting that he wished he could go door to door and apologize, too. He said he caused a lot of harassment at his daughter’s school because he was wearing a school sweatshirt that day, which helped online detectives track him down.
Not long after his son was sentenced, Bozell III took to the X Platform to say that while he thought Bates was “a good man,” that his son’s sentence was “a complete sham,” before bringing up the riots that occurred in locations other than the U.S. Capitol during the electoral college count.
“This was a political process because my son, Leo Brent Bozell IV, bears his father’s name, and his father is a well-known conservative leader who supports President Trump in 2024,” Bozell III wrote. “I love my son and I will be more frank than ever. The criminal investigation into this corrupt Department of Justice is long overdue.”
In the more than three years since the attack on the Capitol, federal prosecutors have charged more than 1,424 defendants and secured more than 1,019 convictions. Of the 884 defendants convicted, 541 received periods of incarceration, ranging from a few days behind bars to Tarrio’s 22-year prison sentence.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
