The son of a well-known conservative activist was given a prison sentence of almost four years on Friday. Prosecutors claimed that he continuously attacked the U.S. Capitol, breaking a window, pursuing a police officer, and entering the Senate floor.
Leo Brent Bozell IV, a 44-year-old resident of Palmyra, Pennsylvania, was one of the initial rioters to enter the Capitol building and was among the first to reach the Senate floor during the siege that occurred on January 6, 2021.
Bozell’s father, L. Brent Bozell III, started the Media Research Center, the Parents Television Council, and other conservative media groups.
The younger Bozell apologized to two Capitol police officers who were sitting in the courtroom gallery before U.S. District Judge John Bates sentenced him to three years and nine months in prison. He also told his parents and wife that he has done something that will always bring shame to his family.
“I don’t know who that person is in the videos,” he said. “I’m not sure what I was thinking.” Bates explained that storming the Capitol was not a sudden or unplanned action for Bozell. The judge noted that he had made plans to go to the Capitol on January 6th and expected violence on that day.
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The judge said that you had many opportunities to stop doing what you were doing.
Prosecutors have suggested that Bozell should be sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison. According to reports, he was accused of continuously and aggressively attacking law enforcement officers. He was part of a group of rioters who broke through police lines at multiple locations both inside and outside the Capitol.
“According to prosecutors, Bozell was one of the few rioters on January 6 who participated in multiple significant breaches,” the statement said.
The judge has allowed Bozell to stay out of prison until he is given a specific date to report. Bozell expressed gratitude to the judge after finding out what his sentence would be.
Bozell was taken into custody in February 2021. An individual who provided a tip to the FBI identified Bozell by noticing that he was wearing a sweatshirt from the “Hershey Christian Academy” on January 6th.
Bates listened to witness statements without a jury and then found Bozell guilty of 10 charges. These charges included obstructing the joint session of Congress on January 6th, where they were certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
After the rally organized by then-President Donald Trump called “Stop the Steal” near the White House on January 6th, Bozell went to the Capitol and joined a group of people who broke through a police line.
Bozell broke the window of the Senate Wing Door using a metal object. Bozell entered the building by climbing through a broken window. He then joined other rioters in chasing a Capitol Police officer named Eugene Goodman up a staircase. Eventually, they reached an area where other officers were waiting to confront them.
Bozell went into Nancy Pelosi’s office when she was the Speaker of the House. He came out with something that nobody knows what it is. Later, he went into the Senate gallery and turned a C-SPAN camera downwards so that it couldn’t capture the rioters causing damage in the chamber on a live video feed. He also spent a few minutes on the Senate floor.
According to prosecutors, Bozell spent almost an hour walking around the Capitol, going to many different areas of the building and crossing seven police lines before being escorted out by the police.
Prosecutors wanted to add a “terrorism enhancement” to Bozell’s prison sentence, which would make the recommended range of the sentence much longer. However, the judge decided not to use the enhancement because it didn’t seem appropriate in this particular case.
Eric Snyder, a defense attorney, stated that Bozell should not be labeled as a terrorist. “Good people sometimes make mistakes,” Snyder said. “This person is generally good, but they did something terrible.”
Bozell’s father wrote a letter to the court to show support for his son. In the letter, he also raised concerns about why the prosecutors were seeking a terrorism enhancement.
“I have chosen not to speak for the past 3 1/2 years because I didn’t want to disrupt the course of justice,” he wrote. “But after seeing what happened in the trial, and especially after learning about this terrorism enhancement, I can no longer support it.” I think there are other factors involved in this situation.
Over 1,350 individuals have been accused of federal crimes connected to the Capitol riot. More than 850 people have been sentenced, and about two-thirds of them have received prison terms ranging from a few days to 22 years.