Deliberations begin in trial of man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband

SAN FRANCISCO >> A lawyer for the man who broke into former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and attacked her husband told a federal jury Wednesday that David DePape was motivated by his political beliefs, not because he wanted to interfere with her official duties as a member of Congress, making the charges against him invalid.

David DePape, 43, is charged with attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official in the Oct. 28, 2022, attack against Paul Pelosi.

During her rebuttal, prosecutor Helen Gilbert said the defense had made a false distinction between Nancy Pelosi’s politics and official duties and that DePape didn’t differentiate between the two.

DePape pleaded not guilty, but during testimony on Tuesday admitted to bludgeoning Paul Pelosi with a hammer while trying to carry out a plan to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage.

Federal public defender Angela Chuang told the jury during her closing statement that DePape did a “horrible thing” but that he did not commit the federal charges with which he is charged.

“He seriously hurt and traumatized Mr. Pelosi that day, that’s inexcusable,” Chuang told the jury. “He committed serious crimes that night, there is no doubt about it. But he didn’t commit these two crimes.”

Chuang told the jurors DePape believed in rightwing conspiracy theories he learned about while listening to conservative commentators on YouTube. She said those beliefs led him to Nancy Pelosi, whom he considered the face of the Democratic Party. The federal charges don’t fit, Chuang said, because DePape targeted Nancy Pelosi for her political activities and not because he wanted to interfere with her official duties in Congress.

DePape admitted during trial testimony he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, interrogate her and “break her kneecaps” if she did not admit to the lies he said she told about “Russiagate,” a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

DePape also testified under cross-examination that he told a San Francisco police detective that he had hoped to see an injured Pelosi wheeled onto the floor of the House so everyone would know there were consequences for being “the most evil people on the planet.”

“He did not say he was going to wheel her out to the DNC (Democratic National Committee), to the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee). He said Congress. We didn’t put those words in his mouth. He said that on the day he did this,” Gilbert said.

DePape’s attack did in fact interfere with Nancy Pelosi’s official duties because after learning of the assault on her husband, she canceled a classified briefing and a meeting with someone from Ukraine to fly home, Gilbert said.