WASHINGTON – A man whose family members were key architects of the American conservative movement is set to go on trial Friday for his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Federal prosecutors They have been looking for more than 11 years in prison for Brent Bozell IVBarry Goldwater, son of Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell III and brother-in-law of William F. Buckley Jr., and ghostwriter, “The Conscience of a Conservative. “
On January 6, 2021, Bozell joined a pro-Trump mob that breached police lines and smashed windows during the initial storming of the Capitol. He is also a member of the far-right Proud Boys anti-abortion activist accused of plotting to kill FBI agents working on her January 6 case..
Bozell went to the Senate gallery and then to the Senate floor. He also joined the crowd in violently breaking down the doors of the Capitol rotunda, allowing other rioters to storm the building.
Prosecutors Bozell “led the charge” on January 6 because he “believed the presidential election had been ‘stolen’ and therefore planned to respond with violence.” They are seeking an enhanced terror sentence – the same given to five members of the Proud Boys. four of them were found guilty of sedition — that Bozell’s actions “demonstrated an intent to prevent Congress from ratifying the results of the election, both through physical force and destruction of property,” and were “a prime example of the intent to influence and retaliate against government conduct through intimidation” or coercion. and enforces the enhancement of terrorism.”
Prosecutors also cited Bozell’s comments that “the siege of the Capitol was morally justified” and his portrayal of former Vice President Mike Pence as a “traitor” as evidence of his intent to engage in domestic terrorism.
One lawsuit This week, prosecutors said they secured sentence enhancements in several cases on Jan. 6, including terrorism-related charges against Proud Boys such as Enrique Tarrio. 22 years in federal prisonThe longest sentence in the January 6 incident.
Prosecutors also said that Bozell made “reasons for his behavior on Jan. 6 that were both inconsistent with the video evidence and implausible” during his court testimony. sentencing in September on a number of charges, including five felonies.
It was Bozell caught with the help of of online explorersas well as locals who recognize him because he wears a sweater named after his children’s school in Pennsylvania.
The prosecution’s sentencing document states that after January 6, Bozell sent a message to his brother asking him to withdraw public condemnation of the violence. defense lawyers wrote Bozell said he is part of a family that is “very personally and emotionally ‘invested’ in the final outcome of the 2020 election, and that Bozell is “ashamed that he broke the windows and entered the US Capitol Building.
Bozell’s father wrote a letter of support, saying that he had “remained silent for the last 3 1/2 years” so as not to “throw away the wagon of justice” he now believed in — especially because of the decision to search. Increased terrorism sentence – “there’s more” in his son’s case.
“I’m not asking for my son’s innocence, I’m just asking that his punishment fit the crime. I’m asking the Court to take into account my son’s sterling character and the character he has been defended by absolutely everyone around him,” Bozell III wrote.
Bozell III founded the Parents Television and Media Council in 1995, when his son, now in his mid-40s, was a teenager. The organization has targeted shows like Friends, Dawson’s Creek and Spin City, and video games like Mortal Kombat. Bozell III said during the 2016 presidential campaign that Donald Trump “might be their biggest charlatan,” but he has moved to defend Trump, even writing a 2019 book, Unmasked: The Big Media’s War on Trump.
Bozell’s grandfather was convicted of “assaulting a police officer with a five-foot wooden cross” in 1970 after leading an anti-abortion attack on a clinic in Washington. According to his 1997 obituary in The Washington Post.
In the more than three years since the Capitol attack, federal prosecutors have indicted more than 1,424 defendants and secured more than 1,019 convictions. Of the 884 defendants sentenced, 541 received prison terms ranging from a few days behind bars to Tarrio’s 22-year sentence.