For most of his life, Leo Brent Bozell IV has been known as the devout, but somewhat troubled, scion of a famous conservative family — the son of L. Brent Bozell III, a culture warrior and longtime critic of the media, and the grandson of L. Brent Bozell Jr., a fierce anti-Communist and one of the early architects of the anti-abortion movement.
But on Friday, with some of his family sitting near him in the courtroom, Mr. Bozell was sentenced to just under four years in prison for having played a central role in the attack by Trump supporters on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The 45-month sentence imposed by Judge John D. Bates at a hearing in Federal District Court in Washington was only about a third of the 140 months that the government had initially requested. Judge Bates dismissed the government’s request as “untethered to the circumstances of this case.”
As part of his ruling, Judge Bates determined that Mr. Bozell’s conduct on Jan. 6 technically fit the description needed to apply a so-called terrorism enhancement to his sentence. But the judge decided not to use that enhancement in coming up with the final penalty, saying that branding Mr. Bozell a domestic terrorist was excessively harsh.
“I’m not sure that label is an appropriate label for the defendant to have to carry with him,” he said.
Prosecutors say that few of the rioters participated in as many pivotal breaches of the Capitol building and its grounds as did Mr. Bozell. He was convicted by Judge Bates at a bench trial in September of 10 charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder and assault.
Starting by pushing past police lines on a flight of stairs outside the Capitol, prosecutors say, Mr. Bozell shattered a windowpane of a Senate wing door and then joined in pursuing a Capitol Police officer to within steps of the Senate chamber. Mr. Bozell made his way into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and then on to the Senate floor.
“Without people like Mr. Bozell, the riot doesn’t happen,” Ashley Akers, a prosecutor, said.
“He himself facilitated access to the Capitol building for hundreds of other rioters,” she said.
During the sentencing hearing, Mr. Bozell, 44, apologized to two police officers who watched from the gallery. He then turned to address his parents and his wife, apologizing for facing jail time and leaving his wife to raise their three daughters. He described his actions on Jan. 6 as a “devastating reality” that “put a stain on my family forever.”
The Bozells have been deeply enmeshed in the conservative movement for more than half a century, starting with L. Brent Bozell Jr., who served as a speechwriter to Barry Goldwater, the far-right senator from Arizona who won the Republican nomination for president in 1964 but went on to lose the general election in a landslide. Mr. Bozell Jr. was also close to another right-wing luminary of the 20th century, William F. Buckley Jr., having married his sister Patricia.
His son, Mr. Bozell III, made his own mark, mostly in conservative media circles, founding the Media Research Center, an organization with the self-appointed mission of calling out liberal bias. He also created the Parents Television and Media Council, which often filed complaints about supposed examples of indecency on TV.
Mr. Bozell IV, who often goes by the nickname Zeeker, followed a different path, according to court papers filed last month by his former lawyer, William Shipley.
He began a long struggle with alcohol and drug abuse in high school and went on to study Christian theology in college. But he left school without obtaining a degree and ended up making a life for himself selling decks and waterproofing basements, far from the rarefied political and intellectual worlds of his father and grandfather.
Still, he maintained an interest in politics, especially as the 2020 election approached. Ultimately, Mr. Shipley wrote, he became “too personally and emotionally invested in the final outcome” of the contest and came to believe that the results of the race had been “rigged” against President Donald J. Trump.
Just before he handed down the sentence, Judge Bates responded to Mr. Bozell, echoing the words of his new lawyer, Eric Snyder, in saying that considering his family’s political acumen, Mr. Bozell should have anticipated consequences.
He also took Mr. Bozell to task for the “ease and, at times, brazenness” with which he gave unconvincing explanations for his behavior during his trial, saying he was forced to increase the sentence to reflect explanations made by Mr. Bozell from the stand that “defied both video evidence and common sense.”
“You got caught up in the events, but you’re a sophisticated adult,” Judge Bates said. “You made the decision to testify.”
Mr. Shipley had argued in court papers that even though Mr. Bozell had helped to plan and coordinate “Stop the Steal” events in support of Mr. Trump in the aftermath of Election Day, he traveled to Washington just before Jan. 6 from his home in Pennsylvania for a more innocuous reason: to organize a musical performance. At the last minute, however, the lead singer fell ill and the show did not come together.
Mr. Shipley also claimed that Mr. Bozell had entered the Capitol grounds that day “through a combination of bad judgment and unfortunate curiosity” and eventually “got swept up with the crowd and ‘crossed a line.’”
Mr. Bozell’s family had “concerns when they first learned of the charges in this case,” Mr. Shipley wrote.
His father, L. Brent Bozell III, initially bristled, for example, at the request by prosecutors to have Judge Bates apply the terrorism enhancement.
“No father can vouchsafe for the perfection of his son, and I don’t,” he wrote in a letter to Judge Bates. “Nor should a father ever excuse the inexcusable behavior of his son, not to anyone, to include the judge who will determine his fate, and I won’t do that either.”
“But I will state categorically here what I would say if I was on the stand, under oath,” he went on. “My son is a good man.”
