Leo Brent Bozell IV, a son of right-wing activist L. Brent Bozell III, has been charged in federal court for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
Bozell IV faces three counts—disorderly conduct, entering a restricted building, and obstructing an official proceeding—according to a complaint unsealed Feb. 16.
Bozell’s father is the founder of the conservative Media Research Center, a self-described watchdog group that aims to “expose and neutralize the propaganda arm of the Left: the national news media.” His Parents Television Council campaigns to bring “responsibility and decency to the entertainment industry in answer to America’s demand for positive, family-oriented television programming,” and the Culture and Media Institute, which Bozell III founded in 1987, rails against what it claims is “liberal bias” throughout the American media. Bozell III is outspoken about his extreme anti-abortion views, and recently complained on the Fox Business network that all Republicans have been unfairly tarred as riot participants.
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The complaint against Bozell IV, who coached girls’ basketball at the Hershey Christian Academy in Pennsylvania, contains screenshots from video footage showing him on the Senate balcony as well as wandering the Senate floor during the Capitol riot. He can be seen wearing a blue sweatshirt emblazoned with “Hershey Christian Academy” across 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 says.
The FBI received its first tip about Bozell IV on Jan. 14, according to the complaint. The tipster provided Bozell IV’s full name, along with links to video of Bozell inside the Capitol, as well as shots of him exiting the building. The next day, a second person contacted the FBI about a photo they had seen on Twitter of Bozell IV, followed by additional information gleaned from the Hershey Christian Academy’s Facebook page, that revealed the coach’s nickname as “Zeeker.”
Six days later, a third concerned citizen submitted a tip through the FBI’s website that included a photo of Bozell IV and a teenage girl on a basketball court, holding a trophy. The tipster said they were “100% positive that Zeeker Bozell'' had been involved in the Capitol riot.
A few days after the Capitol siege, a co-worker showed the tipster a photo of a man exiting the Capitol building in a blue Hershey Christian Academy sweatshirt. They “immediately identified” Bozell IV as the parent of children who attended Hershey Christian, and 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 does not yet have a lawyer listed in court records. A spokesperson for Bozell III did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
— With additional reporting by Will Sommer
