Conservative movement scion Brent Bozell IV set for sentencing in Jan. 6 case

WASHINGTON — A man whose family members were key architects of the American conservative movement is set to be sentenced Friday for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Federal prosecutors are seeking more than 11 years in prison for Brent Bozell IV, the son of Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell III and grandson of Joe McCarthy speechwriter Brent Bozell Jr., who was William F. Buckley Jr.'s brother-in-law and ghost-wrote Barry Goldwater's "The Conscience of a Conservative."

On Jan. 6, 2021, Bozell joined the pro-Trump mob as it breached the police line and smashed windows during the initial breach of the Capitol. He was side by side with members of the far-right Proud Boys, as well as an anti-abortion rights advocate accused of plotting to kill FBI employees who worked on his Jan. 6 case.

Bozell made his way into the Senate gallery and then onto the Senate floor. He also joined the mob during another violent breach of doors off the Capitol rotunda, which allowed other rioters to storm the building.

Prosecutorssay Bozell “led the charge” on Jan. 6 because he "believed that the presidential election had been ‘stolen’ and thus planned to respond through violence." They are seeking a terrorism sentencing enhancement — the same one given to five members of the Proud Boys, four of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy — saying Bozell's actions "displayed a clear intent to stop Congress from certifying the results of the election through the use of both physical force and property destruction," conduct which "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."

Prosec