Pelosi attack video shows struggle
Ex-speaker refuses to view footage of husband, assailant
Video released publicly Friday shows the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fighting with his assailant for control of a hammer moments before he was struck during a brutal attack in the couple’s San Francisco home last year.
The body-camera footage shows suspect David DePape wrest the tool from 82-year-old Paul Pelosi and lunge toward him with the hammer over his head. The blow to Pelosi occurs out of view of the camera and the officers — one of them cursing — rush into the house and jump on DePape.
Pelosi, apparently unconscious, can be seen lying face down on the floor in his pajama top and underwear. Officials later said he woke up in a pool of his own blood.
The release comes after a coalition of news agencies, including The Associated Press, sought access to the evidence that prosecutors played in open court last month. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office had refused to make the exhibits available to journalists.
A state court judge Wednesday ruled there was no reason to keep the video secret.
The evidence includes portions of Paul Pelosi’s 911 call on Oct. 28, as well as video images from Capitol police surveillance cameras, a body camera worn by one of the two police officers who arrived at the house and a nearly 18-minute audio recording from DePape’s
interview with police.
The Capitol Police video shows DePape walk up to a glass-panel door, leave and then return wearing a large backpack and carrying two other bags. He set all the items down and pulled out a hammer, pausing to put on gloves, and used it to smash the door glass so he could step through an opening.
DePape has pleaded not guilty in ongoing state and federal cases. He is being held in jail without bail. He faces charges including attempted murder, elder abuse, and assaulting an immediate family member of a federal official.
San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Adam Lipson, who represents DePape, called the video’s
release a “terrible mistake” in a statement Friday.
“Releasing this footage is disrespectful to Mr. Pelosi, and serves no purpose except to feed the public desire for spectacle and violence,” Lipson said. “The footage is inflammatory and could feed unfounded theories about this case, and we are extremely concerned about Mr. DePape’s ability to get a fair trial.”
Members of Congress have faced a sharp rise in threats in the two years since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Paul Pelosi was asleep at the couple’s home when DePape — who was 42 at the time, roughly half Pelosi’s age — allegedly broke in. Nancy Pelosi was in Washington
at the time and under the protection of her security detail, which does not extend to family members.
Her husband of nearly 60 years later underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands. He has since appeared in public wearing a hat and a glove that covered his wounds.
Speaking at the Capitol after the release, Nancy Pelosi said she had not watched or listened to any of it, and had no intention of doing so.
Pelosi said her husband “is making progress, but it will take more time.”
San Francisco Officer Kolby Wilmes’ body-camera video begins with officers approaching the brick home
and rapping on the door. It takes about 20 seconds for the door to open and during that time, the officers discuss whether they have the right house.
When the door opens, Paul Pelosi says, “Hi, guys, how are you?”
Both men are facing the officers at the door. Initially, the hammer is in the shadows and it takes about five seconds before a flashlight shows DePape holding the handle of a hammer with his right hand and clutching Pelosi’s right hand, which is gripping the hammer head, with his left hand. The struggle is not apparent in the first few seconds.
“What’s going on, man?” an officer asks.
“Everything’s good,” DePape
replies.
“Drop the hammer,” the officer says.
DePape says no and begins to pull it from Pelosi’s grip. Pelosi says, “Hey, hey.”
DePape wins control of the hammer and winds up with his right hand, and delivers a vicious overhand blow as Pelosi disappears out of view and officers rush in. The officers called for backup as they struggled with DePape and Pelosi was lying on the ground.
In an interview with San Francisco Police Lt. Carla Hurley after he was taken into custody, DePape said he didn’t regret the attack even though it was not on Nancy Pelosi, his intended target. DePape told Hurley he was going after Nancy Pelosi for lying to the American public and that he planned to hold her hostage for her crimes. He said believed the discredited conspiracy that Democrats stole the 2020 election from former President Donald Trump.
DePape told Hurley he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and would “break her kneecaps” if she lied.
He said he was surprised to find Paul Pelosi in the house. DePape said he planned to tie Paul Pelosi up so he could get some sleep, because carrying a heavy backpack to the home had tired him out.
When Hurley asked why DePape did not leave when he realized Nancy Pelosi wasn’t home and the police were on the way, he compared himself to the Founding Fathers.
“They fought the British, they fought the tyranny. They didn’t just (expletive) surrender to it. And when I left my house, I went to go fight tyranny. I did not leave to go surrender,” he said.