Leo Brent Bozell IV, a son of right-wing activist L. Brent Bozell III, has been charged by federal court for his alleged role in the January 6 uprising of the Capitol.
Bozell IV is facing three charges – disorderly conduct, entering a restricted building and obstructing official proceedings – according to a complaint that was unsealed on Feb. 16.
Bozell’s father is the founder of the conservative Media Research Center, a self-proclaimed watchdog group whose goal is “to expose and neutralize the propaganda arm of the left: the national news media.” His parents’ television council is campaigning to “bring accountability and decency into the entertainment industry in response to America’s demand for positive, family-oriented television programming,” and the Culture and Media Institute, which Bozell III founded in 1987, opposes some it claims to be “Liberal Bias” in the US media. Bozell III has spoken out about his extreme anti-abortion views, and recently complained about the Fox Business network that all Republicans have been unfairly tarred as participants in the insurgency.
The indictment against Bozell IV, who coached girls’ basketball at Hershey Christian Academy in Pennsylvania, includes screenshots of video footage showing him on the Senate balcony wandering the Senate floor during the Capitol riot. He is wearing a blue sweatshirt with “Hershey Christian Academy” on the chest. At least three separate witnesses saw video on TV or social media of Bozell participating in the riot and contacted the FBI, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, the FBI received its first tip about Bozell IV on Jan. 14. The tipster gave Bozell IV’s full name, along with links to video of Bozell in the Capitol, as well as photos of him exiting the building. The next day, a second person contacted the FBI about a photo they saw on Twitter of Bozell IV, followed by additional information on the Hershey Christian Academy Facebook page, revealing the coach’s nickname as’ Zeeker ‘it turned out.
Six days later, a third concerned citizen submitted a tip through the FBI’s website with a photo of Bozell IV and a teenage girl on a basketball court holding a trophy. The tipster said they were “100% certain that Zeeker Bozell” had been involved in the uprising at the Capitol.
A few days after the siege of the Capitol, an employee showed the tipster a photo of a man exiting the Capitol in a blue Hershey Christian Academy sweatshirt. They immediately ‘identified’ Bozell IV ‘as the parent of children who went to Hershey Christian who had also served as the school’s girls’ basketball coach until March 2020, as the team could no longer practice or play games due to the COVID . -19 pandemic. “
Bozell IV has no attorney in court records yet. A Bozell III spokesman did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
– With additional reporting by Will Sommer