On October 28, 2022, a little over a year ago, a man entered, in San Francisco, in Nancy Pelosi’s housethen Democratic President of the House of Representatives, the famous “ Speaker “. Equipped with rope, gloves and adhesive tape, David DePapea follower of many far-right conspiracy theories, wanted to kidnap the well-known politician to virulently oppose Donald Trumpand did not know she was in Washington.
“Where’s Nancy?” », he asked his husband Paul before coming to blows with the octogenarian, injuring him in the arm and hand and fracturing his skull. More than a year later, Paul Pelosi found himself facing his attacker on Monday in court, forced to evoke the trauma of an attack that he tried to repress by all means. “I tried to put it out of my mind,” he said.
“I did my best not to relive that” and “I didn’t discuss this incident with anyone,” Paul Pelosi said. “I didn’t watch the news and I encouraged my family not to either, because it was so traumatic. I did everything in my power not to go through that again. »
“Woke up in a pool of blood”
The former businessman recounted how DePape burst into his bedroom doorway around 2:30 a.m., looking for Nancy Pelosi, the “leader of the pack.” Knowing he was “in serious danger”, he tried to “remain as calm as possible” in front of the suspect, to speak to him, while taking refuge in the bathroom to call the police. The two men then went down to the first floor.
“I knew my only chance was that if we were down there and the police came, it would be so much easier to arrest him. God knows what he would have done if we were still on the third floor,” he testified. The attack with the hammer took place as the police arrived. A year later, Paul Pelosi still has not seen the images of this attack, captured by the agents’ body camera.
After “waking up in a pool of blood”, he was hospitalized for six days. Asked about his recovery, the businessman said he had to relearn how to walk and be mobile. He still suffers from headaches and dizziness, less severe than after the attack.
The desire to attack other personalities
DePape’s defense asked him no questions. During the procedure, the attacker pleaded not guilty. His defense recognizes the attack but disputes the fact that he wanted to specifically attack Nancy Pelosi, a key factor for the prosecution. “We’ll have to wait for him.” I’m going to have to tie you up and we’ll wait for him,” DePape reportedly told Pelosi when he told him that his wife was not at home.
David DePape acted because he believed “with all his might” in various conspiracy theories according to which the American government is corrupt and the left-wing elite engages in pedophilia, his lawyer, Jodi Linker, argued last Thursday. Faced with investigators, the defendant ured that he wanted to attack other personalities, in particular the governor of California Gavin Newsom, the son of President Hunter Biden, and the actor Tom Hanks. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison. In addition to this federal trial, he must also be tried separately by the California courts.