The New York Times editors could barely contain their glee. “Conservative Family Scion Sentenced to Nearly 4 Years for Jan. 6 Attack.” The subhead spelled out the details: “Leo Brent Bozell, the son and grandson of influential right-wing figures, shattered a windowpane in the Capitol, pursued a police officer and made his way into the speaker’s office during the pro-Trump riot.”
If the conservative movement has royalty, the Bozell family can rightfully claim a place in court. Leo’s father, L. Brent Bozell III, is the founder of the Media Research Center, and his grandfather, L. Brent Bozell, Jr., was a founding father of the National Review. Leo’s grandmother is Patricia Buckley Bozell, and his great-uncle is William F. Buckley, the original editor of the National Review and the public face of American conservatism for nearly a half-century.
Although Leo “Zeeker” Bozell, 44, gave up his claim to the Bozell throne long ago for the quiet life of construction work in small-town Pennsylvania, he had name enough to bring out the inner Stasi in the DOJ’s weaponized prosecutorial corps.
Bozell’s mistake was to pay more attention to the 2020 election campaign than was good for him. “He came to believe,” the Times reports with astonishment, “that the results of the race had been ‘rigged’ against President Donald J. Trump.” The Times editors chose to ignore the unconstitutional changes in state election laws and the obvious vote-harvesting in key cities. But to overlook 51 intel officials falsely swearing that Hunter Biden’s laptop was a Russian op is malpractice bordering on treason.
Although Bozell’s window-breaking would not net a top-ten spot in a list of Kennedy family disgraces, it was crime enough to trigger the partisan warriors of Biden’s DOJ. A married father of three daughters, he accepted responsibility for breaking the windows. He refused, however, to plead guilty to either obstruction of an official proceeding or assaulting a police officer, a contrived charge added at the last minute.
The trial took place before the Supreme Court agreed to review Fischer v. United States, the case that challenges the obstruction charge leveled against Bozell and more than 300 other J6ers. That specious charge is likely to be thrown out before the Supreme Court breaks for the summer in early July.
The equally bogus assault charge hinged on whether Bozell led a surge against a line of police officers. His attorneys claim he was caught up in a scrum that had a mind of its own. Although no police officers were injured, Judge John Bates ruled against Bozell on this count as well as on the obstruction charge.
The outcome of the trial shocked no one. The DOJ has close to a 100-percent conviction rate. Not coincidentally, it also has a 100-percent success rate in denying venue change out of a district that gave Trump 5 percent of its vote in 2020.
What was surprising was the “Terrorism Enhancement” prosecutors asked for, allegedly because Bozell destroyed property in a quest to alter government policy. “In DOJ’s view,” argues Bozell’s former attorney William Shipley, “breaking two windows on Jan. 6 was analogous to flying a commercial airliner into downtown high rise office buildings.”
The original probation report suggested a guideline range of 17 to 20 years. When the DOJ filed its sentencing statement, however, prosecutors asked for “only” 140 months, a little less than 12 years.
In Bates’s defense, the 45-month sentence he imposed was not unusual, at least by January 6 standards. Rachel Powell, one of the women I profile in my new book, Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6, received a 57-month sentence for window-breaking and miscellaneous pushing and shoving. In her case, however, prosecutors asked for only eight years.
Although Bates rejected the terrorism enhancement — the Times paraphrases him as calling it “excessively harsh” — it is not a stretch to believe that prosecutors went after Bozell because of his family pedigree. He was one of only seven J6ers hit with a terrorism enhancement, and five of those were Proud Boys.
“This was a political prosecution,” says Leo’s father Brent. “Leo Brent Bozell IV carries his father’s name, and his father is a known conservative leader who is supporting President Trump in 2024.”
Brent Bozell owned up to his son’s mischief, but he is appalled by the disparity in sentencing between J6ers and those arrested in the Floyd riots. New York attorney Urooj Rahman, for instance, got 15 months for firebombing a police car.
The Kavanaugh protesters got off even easier. In 2018, screaming women repeatedly obstructed an “official proceeding,” the Senate vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Hundreds were arrested that day and in the days leading up to the vote. As NPR reported, “[m]ost of those charged this week with disorderly conduct, crowding or obstructing paid fines of $35 or $50” (italics added).
“This is just one more way the Biden administration is trying to shut down the conservative movement in America,” says Brent. “But in this case, they failed. I love my son and will be more outspoken than ever. The criminal investigation into this corrupt Justice Department is long overdue.”
Jack Cashill’s new book, Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6, is now on sale.
Picryl.
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