At the beginning of his trial on Thursday, the defense counsel for the man accused of breaking into the San Francisco home of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last year and beating her husband with a hammer said that the guy was enmeshed in conspiracies.
Shortly before the midterm elections of last year, in October of 2022, an assault on Paul Pelosi, who was eighty-two years old, shocked the political world.
Source : NBC NEWS
Jodi Linker, a defense lawyer, said on Thursday that she would not dispute the fact that her client David DePape assaulted Paul Pelosi, an incident that was captured on police body cam footage. Rather, she will contend that he acted because he felt, “with every ounce of his being,” that he was stopping government corruption and the exploitation of children by actors and politicians.
Nancy Pelosi’s husband
“This isn’t a murder mystery. However, she said, “the government ignores the ‘whydunit,’ and the why matters in this instance.”
DePape entered a not guilty plea to charges of attempting to abduct a federal official and assaulting a federal official’s close relative with the intention of exacting revenge on the official for carrying out their official responsibilities. The main thrust of Linker’s defense is that DePape was not pursuing Nancy Pelosi in an attempt to prevent her from carrying out her official responsibilities, so he is innocent of the allegations.
These convictions are significant as both accusations call for the government to demonstrate that Mr. DePape’s actions were a result of her carrying out her official responsibilities as a member of Congress, according to Linker. DePape’s opinions are “wholly unrelated to Nancy Pelosi’s official duties,” the speaker said.
The FBI’s testimony and the evidence, according to federal prosecutor Laura Vartain Horn, will demonstrate that DePape conducted online research on his targets, gathering phone numbers and addresses and even paying for a public records service to obtain information about Nancy Pelosi and other individuals. Horn told the jurors that DePape began plotting the attack in August.
Vartain Horn displayed a picture of Paul Pelosi laying in a bloody puddle while making her introductory remarks. Additionally, she played a call that DePape made to a TV station that repeated conspiracy beliefs.
Holding a hammer inside a plastic evidence bag, Vartain Horn said, “The evidence in this case is going to show that when the defendant used this hammer to break into the Pelosi’s home he intended to kidnap Nancy Pelosi.”
Body camera footage of DePape confessing to the assault while chatting with law enforcement and paramedics outside the Pelosis home was presented by the prosecution.
“What I did is unavoidable. Police saw me doing it,” he stated.
Next week, Paul Pelosi is scheduled to give a testimony.
DePape vented about aliens, communists, religious minorities, and world leaders on a blog and an internet forum. He questioned the outcome of the 2020 election and repeated the ludicrous conspiracy theory spread by right-wing QAnon that the United States government is controlled by a group of demon-worshiping pedophiles. The webpages were removed not long after his apprehension.
He may go to jail for life if found guilty. Along with additional offenses, he has entered a not guilty plea to charges in state court related to attempted murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, elder abuse, and home burglary. No date has been set for a state trial.
One of the Pelosis’ daughters, Christine Pelosi, together with Gypsy Taub, DePape’s ex-girlfriend, and their two kids were present in the courtroom on Thursday. When Taub quietly shouted DePape’s name and planted a kiss on his lips, he waved and grinned back.
His stepfather, Gene DePape, said that DePape, a Canadian citizen, immigrated to the US more than 20 years ago after falling in love with Taub, a well-known pro-nudity activist in Berkeley and the Bay Area. According to Taub, David DePape struggled with drug misuse and mental illness in the last several years and was homeless, as reported by local media.
According to federal authorities, DePape approached a sleeping Paul Pelosi—clad in pajamas and boxer shorts—by smashing his shoulder through a glass panel on a door at the Pelosis’ Pacific Heights home.
“Nancy is where? Nancy is where? Approximately two in the morning, DePape approached Paul Pelosi while carrying a zip tie and hammer, as per the court documents. While in Washington, Nancy Pelosi was protected by her security team, which does not include her family.
According to court documents, Paul Pelosi called 911, and when two police officers arrived, they saw DePape hit him in the head with a hammer, rendering him unconscious.
After sixty years of marriage, Nancy Pelosi’s husband had surgery to fix damage to his hands and right arm as well as a fractured skull.
DePape, 43, is said to have informed a San Francisco investigator that he planned to take Nancy Pelosi hostage after his detention. Prosecutors claim that he threatened to “break her kneecaps” to demonstrate to other members of Congress that there were “consequences to actions” if she lied, but if she revealed the truth, he would let her go.
Hunter, the son of President Joe Biden, actress Tom Hanks, women’s and queer studies professor, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and DePape himself—who supported himself by working odd jobs as a carpenter and living in a garage in Richmond, California—were among the people DePape allegedly told authorities he had other targets.
DePape’s primary objective was the professor, who is also scheduled to appear next week. Linker said that DePape went to the Pelosis’ residence in order to “lure her out.”
Acting Lieutenant O’Connor of the San Francisco Police Department, who assisted in processing the murder scene, testified that she retrieved two bags and a sleeping bag that DePape had carried with him from the Pelosis’ patio. The sledgehammer, zip ties, gloves, duct tape, cash, men’s clothing, a video game system, a Canadian passport, a Canadian birth certificate, and two inflatable, multicolored unicorn outfits were among the belongings in the bags, she added.
