Censoring The Sins Of The Son

The Media Research Center doesn't want you to know that the son of its leader, Brent Bozell, was arrested and imprisoned for his role in the Capitol riot (which his father endorsed).

In February 2021, it was revealed that Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell’s son, Leo Brent “Zeeker” Bozell IV, was arrested for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. The younger Bozell has apparently worked as a girls’ basketball coach in Pennsylvania, and he was identified in part because he was wearing a sweatshirt from a school in the town where he coached (though, apparently, not one that employed him).

You will not be surprised to learn that the MRC didn’t want you to know about Bozell IV’s arrest — there was no mention of it on any MRC-operated website, including its “news” division, CNSNews.com. Bozell made no comment about the arrest on his personal Twitter account, and the MRC has issued no statement from Bozell regarding it. It appears that the MRC wants it to blow over quietly through censorship and radio silence. (ConWebWatch even requested comment from the MRC on Bozell IV; we have heard nothing back.)

Interestingly, Bozell kinda-sorta endorsed the riot his son was arrested for being involved in. While he claimed to deplore the violence and was worried about its effect on the conservative movement, he justified the violence because “they are furious that they believe this election was stolen. I agree with them” — but he also tried to minimize the riot as being done by a small group of actors, though he almost certainly knew at the time that his son was among the rioters. At the same time, Bozell’s MRC peddled conspiracy theories that pre-election polls showing Joe Biden with a huge lead were deliberately faked by the media and that the election was “stolen” because the media didn’t sufficiently parrot pro-Trump talking points.

Bozell is not going to admit that he was wrong, or that his son was wrong, because he has a very Trumpian impulse not to admit his mistakes. Just like no apology ever came when it was revealed in 2014 that Tim Graham ghost-wrote Bozell’s syndicated column (Graham was simply added to Bozell’s byline, and he was finally granted sole credit for the column in 2020), and just like no apology came when Bozell asserted that President Obama looked like a “skinny ghetto crackhead.”

More than a year since Bozell IV’s arrest, the MRC was still in full censorship mode. But it’s not like there hadn’t been any news on that front:

Bozell IV had four additional charges added to his crimes — obstruction of an official proceeding, destruction of government property, entering a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in the Capitol building, acts of physical violence in the Capitol and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building — after video surfaced of him breaking a window and entering the Senate floor.

In July 2021, Bozell rejected a plea deal prosecutors offered him. At the time, his lawyer was John Pierce, who has represented killer Kyle Rittenhouse and other Capitol insurrectionists. Pierce has been accused of harassing his ex-wife and of using a defense fund he created for Rittenhouse to promote himself. Pierce later went AWOL on his clients and got blamed by Rittenhouse for his infamous hangout in a bar with the Proud Boys. Way to pick ’em, Zeeker!

Bozell’s attorneys then tried to get the charges against him dropped over purported technicalities; that motion was dismissed in February 2022.

In September 2023, Bozell IV was found guilty of 10 charges, including five felony offenses, after a trial decided by a federal judge. Prosecutors noted that Bozell marched to the Capitol and joined a mob in breaking through a police line. He smashed a window next to the Senate Wing Door, creating an entry point for hundreds of rioters, chased a Capitol Police officer, then was captured on video entering the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. appearing to have something in his hand when he left.

Entering the Senate gallery, Bozell moved a C-SPAN camera to face the ground so it could not record rioters ransacking the chamber on a live video feed. He also spent several minutes on the Senate floor. Bozell roamed thorough the Capitol for nearly an hour, reaching more than a dozen different parts of the building and passing through at least seven police lines before police escorted him out.

Bozell pere, however, did make a euphemistic statement on his Twitter account: “We’re terribly disappointed in the decision. This isn’t the time to say all I want to say. We love our son and thank you for your prayers.” Sounds a bit like President Biden talking about his son, doesn’t it? Ironically, Bozell’s employees routinely mock Joe for standing by his son.

Sentencing and whining

When Bozell IV was sentenced in May to four years in prison for his actions during the riot, the MRC censored that too. Prosecutors pointed out at sentencing that Bozell IV’s behavior “is a quintessential example of an intent to influence and retaliate against government conduct through intimidation or coercion and warrants the application of the terrorism enhancement,” adding that his comments that the “Capitol siege was morally justified” and his references to former Vice President Mike Pence as a “traitor” as evidence of his intention to engage in an act of domestic terrorism. It was also noted that Bozell IV texted his brother to try to get his father to retract his public condemnation of violence after Jan. 6. It was also also noted that this sort of thing runs in the family: Bozell’s grandfather, Brent Bozell Jr., was “convicted of assaulting a police officer with a five-foot wooden cross” after he led an anti-abortion attack on a clinic in Washington, D.C., in 1970.”

Bozell IV also did his fair share of groveling, claiming that the “devastating reality” of what he did had an impact not only on him but on his family as well, adding that he was not raised that way. He conceded he brought a lot of harassment upon his daughter’s school because he wore a school sweatshirt that day. It was apparently enough to keep him from getting the terrorism enhancement, though he still got a significant prison sentence.

After Zeeker’s conviction, Bozell III tweeted that “We’re terribly disappointed in the decision. This isn’t the time to say all I want to say.” He finally said what he wanted to say in a Twitter/X post on the day of the sentencing — to which he blocked comments from being posted, presumably so he didn’t have to see his whining being called out — beginning with a healthy dose of whataboutism:

I truly believe Judge John Bates is a fair judge, and a good man, but today’s judgment against my son is a complete travesty. In 2020, America was in flames as Antifa and BLM set fire to city after city – Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and so many more. Police stations were torched, and dozens of officers were injured as all manner of projectiles, from rocks to Molotov cocktails, were hurled at them. Dozens of people died. The damage was estimated at over $1.2 billion – the highest in history. And yet there was no outrage from the Justice Department. Instead, silence. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of crimes will never be prosecuted. In New York, the city is paying rioters $13 million for arresting them.

Bozell conveniently left out the fact that those protesters were peaceful and were subject to brutality techniques by police. It seems that Bozell is happy to punish innocent people if it advances his partisan political narratives. From there, it was right-wing whining that his son was held accountable for his crimes:

My son, like tens of millions of other Americans, believed the 2020 presidential election had been stolen. He does not belong to any political organization. His only organized involvement in the 2020 elections was with a local church group that met daily to pray the rosary for America. But on January 6 he entered the Capitol after breaking two windows (cost: under $3 thousand). He accepted responsibility for those offenses, as well as other minor ancillary charges. But when he would not plead guilty to the charge of obstruction – as unconstitutional a charge as there ever was, and one which is about to be tossed out by the Supreme Court – the Biden Justice Department unloaded. Two and a half years after he was charged, on the eve of his trial, suddenly the “Justice” Department found he’d “assaulted” a policeman when his body possibly momentarily brushed the officer. For this, my son has now been sentenced to 45 months in prison.

But that is not all. After his conviction the “Justice” Department tried relentlessly but unsuccessfully to pin a terrorism enhancement charge on him, thus equating my son, whose most serious crime ever was a traffic offense, to Osama bin Laden.

Bozell left out the part where the terrorism enhancement was sought because his son acted like a terrorist. And while the obstruction charge was overturned by the Supreme Court for many of those who were charged with it, it was not because it was “unconstitutional”; it was because the court majority chose to enforce a very narrow interpretation of the relevant statute.

Bozell also ignored that the 2020 election was not, in fact, stolen, no matter how much his organization tried to peddle that conspiracy theory — indeed, such conspiracy theories were a big part of the MRC’s election narrative. If Bozell IV believed this lie, it was in no small part because his father taught him to, and that narrative is too politically advantageous to Bozell pere to ever do the right thing and apologize for spreading such discredited lies.

It wouldn’t be Bozell if he didn’t claim victimhood, and that’s exactly how he concluded:

This was not a pursuit of justice by a prosecution governed by principle. In Biden’s America, justice has no home if you are on the right. This was a political prosecution because my son, Leo Brent Bozell IV carries his father’s name, and his father is a known conservative leader who is supporting President Trump in 2024. This is just one more way the Biden administration is trying to shut down the conservative movement in America. 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.

Bozell needs to be reminded that if his son had not committed crimes during an attempted violent insurrection, he would not be in this situation. Also note that nowhere in his statement did Bozell denounce the riot and its violence; indeed, days after the riot, Bozell went on TV to justify it as “explosion of pent-up outrage from Middle America” — apparently acquiescing to his son’s demands to not criticize it — and whined, as he does here, that the riot makes all conservatives look bad, which is the fault of nobody but the rioters, as well as the repeated failure of conservative leaders like Bozell to effectively distance themselves from the violence they have condoned.

Bozell seems incapable of understanding that you refuse to denounce violent actions by your ideological fellow travelers, people will tend to be that you support those violent actions. But Bozell has no interest in being honest or offering a full accounting — he has to exploit everything to benefit his partisan agenda, no matter how far from the truth it is.

Brent Bozell IV indisputably committed crimes (they were caught on video, after all), and he was held accountable for it. It violates principles of American jurisprudence to give him better treatment because his dad is a right-wing bigwig, no matter how much said dad wants that to be the case. Bozell needs to get over himself, accept reality and stop denigrating the criminal justice system because his son was justly punished for his criminal behavior.

More parental whining

A couple weeks later, Bozell wrote an expanded version of that whiny, victimhood-laden Twitter/X post, which was published not at any MRC website but at the right-wing Daily Signal and, interestingly, the far-right WorldNetDaily, which also publishes columns by MRC executive Tim Graham (who may very well have ghostwritten it) and Terry Jeffrey, editor of the MRC’s now-defunct “news” division, CNSNews.com. Bozell rehashed a bit of whataboutism:

In the summer of 2020, America was in flames as Antifa and Black Lives Matter set fire to city after city—Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and so many more.

Police stations were torched and dozens of officers were injured as all manner of projectiles, from rocks to Molotov cocktails, were hurled at them. Dozens of people died. The damage was estimated at over $1.2 billion, the highest in history.

In January of 2021, the Biden administration came to town. With 35,000 FBI agents and support personnel at his disposal, and armed with an annual $10.8 billion budget, President Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, had everything he needed to bring the criminals to bear.

But there was no outrage from the Justice Department. Instead, with a lonely exception here and there, there was silence. Tens of thousands—perhaps hundreds of thousands—of crimes across the country never have been nor ever will be prosecuted. New York City is paying rioters $13 million in reparations for arresting them. Many other cities across the U.S. are negotiating similar settlements.

Perhaps it’s because Biden’s Justice Department had other priorities. It has been obsessed with putting in prison anyone and everyone who participated in the “insurrection” of Jan. 6.

Again, those protesters receiving a settlement from New York City were peaceful, likely didn’t commit any crimes and were subject to brutality techniques by police. Bozell didn’t explain why he’s demanding that people be punished for crimes they didn’t commit. Further, numerous people have, in fact, been prosecuted and sent to prison for their actions during the 2020 unrest; Bozell is lying by suggesting that nobody has.

In referring to his son’s prosecution, Bozell ramped up the victimhood and whataboutism:

My son does not belong to any political group. His only organized involvement during the 2020 elections was with a local church group that met daily to pray the rosary for America. But like tens of millions of other Americans, my son believed the 2020 presidential election had been stolen. So, on Jan. 6 he traveled to Washington and joined with over 100,000 other patriots to show their support for the man they believed had won and deserved to be certified.

But then things went wrong, and he was part of it. He entered the Capitol after breaking two windows. Ultimately, he was arrested and charged. He accepted responsibility for these felony offenses as well as other ancillary misconduct. But when he would not plead guilty to the felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding—as unconstitutional a charge as there ever was, and one which is about to be tossed out by the Supreme Court—the Biden Justice Department unloaded.

Without the obstruction charge, the Jan. 6 “insurrection” narrative would be vaporized. The vast majority of protesters would be no guiltier than the hundreds of pro-Hamas protesters who stormed the Capitol last October; or Code Pink protesters who regularly disrupt congressional hearings; or even Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., who tripped a fire alarm (and lied about it) to prevent a House vote. All who committed those infractions were charged with misdemeanors and paid meaningless fines.

Were justice equally distributed, my son would be similarly guilty, with an additional punishment for breaking two windows. One could project probation and financial restitution. But this is Joe Biden’s Justice Department, and we knew that would not be enough.

But my son did interact with the police that day.

The prosecution had access to and had watched other video footage from that day. One clip showed my son bringing water to an officer suffering from tear gas. A second video showed my son successfully commanding a menacing rioter to sheath his baseball bat after he’d ignored similar demands from an endangered police officer. There exists also footage showing my son helping yet another police officer to his feet after being knocked over.

This meant nothing to the “Justice” Department. It wanted a felony conviction, and when it got it, this out-of-control federal agency went for more—far more. As the sentencing date approached, it pinned yet another charge: terrorism enhancement. The Biden administration now wanted the court to equate my son, whose most serious crime ever was a traffic offense, to Osama bin Laden. It argued the applicable sentencing range was 22-27 years in prison.

As Bozell almost certainly knows, alleged good deeds do not negate alleged bad deeds. Contrary to Bozell’s attempt at whitewashing his son’s behavior, the judge had previously ruled that Bozell IV was “leaning toward the officers with his head down” and “forcibly” made contact with officers as the mob charged a police line. He also found that Bozell IV repeatedly lied on the stand about his conduct — specifically, that “Many of his explanations of his conduct before and on January 6 defy both the video evidence and common sense” — something that Bozell pere is completely silent on, and something that likely played a role in the length of his sentence.

Further, Bozell IV didn’t merely “break two windows” — he picked up a metal object and “used the object to smash two windows near the Senate Wing Door while rioters around him were similarly attempting to break their way in, and then he climbed in through one of these windows immediately thereafter,” meaning that his “claim of a spontaneous decision to enter the Capitol building only after the windows were smashed is simply not credible.” Bozell III was also silent on the fact that he went on TV to justify the riot his son took part in as an “explosion of pent-up outrage from Middle America” — apparently acquiescing to his son’s demands to not criticize it.

Bozell concluded by lamenting that his reputation as a right-wing bigwig didn’t save his son from the consequences of his actions, which he chose to portray as his son receiving extra punishment because of that name:

Why did they go to such extremes against my son, to include inventing crimes and wanting him declared a terrorist?

This was not a pursuit of justice by a prosecution governed by principle. In Biden’s America, justice has no home for those who challenge it. This was a political prosecution using the full force of the federal government because my son, Leo Brent Bozell IV, carries his father’s name, and his father has influence and is supporting President Donald Trump in 2024. Ends justify means, and they will stop at nothing.

A criminal investigation into this corrupt Justice Department is long overdue. Those who have corrupted it know that in a new Trump administration, their days are numbered.

In summary: Bozell endorsed a violent attempted insurrection (even if he won’t use that word to describe it), his son took part in it, and how he’s whining that justice was done and that his name offered no protection. Talk about right-wing victimhood and entitlement.