OAN’s Brooke Mallory
1:44 AM – Wednesday, November 15, 2023
David DePape, the man who was captured on police body camera footage assaulting Paul Pelsoi, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, apologized in court and said that targeting the former House speaker’s husband was “never” his intention.
DePape, 43, a Canadian hemp jewelry maker and native of Richmond, California, gave a speech and provided evidence to the court on Tuesday.
On October 28th, 2022, prosecutors say that DePape assaulted Pelosi’s husband at their San Francisco home with a hammer. He entered a not guilty plea to charges of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on a federal official’s close relative with the intention of exacting revenge on the official.
The accused assailant said on Tuesday that he had visited the former Speaker’s residence to discuss “possible Russian meddling in the 2016 election.” He also revealed his intention to conduct an online interrogation of the former Speaker. He claimed that he was searching for Nancy to force her to acknowledge her wrongdoing.
According to an Associated Press article that cited a San Francisco police investigator, DePape told authorities last year that he thought there was “evil in Washington” and that he intended to hurt Pelosi since she was “second in line.”
In a testimony, he reportedly had additional targets that included President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, actor Tom Hanks, a women’s and LGBTQ studies professor at the University of Michigan, and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
After hearing a separate testimony from a neurosurgeon who operated on Paul Pelosi following the incident and who detailed his injuries, DePape admitted to the court on Tuesday that he “felt awful.”
“He was never my target and I’m sorry that he got hurt,” DePape said.
When asked why he assaulted Paul Pelosi, he responded, “I reacted because my plan was basically ruined.”
Additionally, in Paul Pelosi’s testimony, he described to the court his “tremendous sense of shock” upon learning that someone had broken into his residence. He claimed to have woken up when he heard a man ask, “Where’s Nancy?” and he replied back that his wife was in Washington, D.C.
Paul recalled how he was able to use the restroom and make a 9-1-1 call, and said that DePape threatened to tie him up while they waited for her to return. He also mentioned “waking up in a pool of [his] own blood” after being struck by a hammer after police arrived.
The allegations against DePape are unfit, according to his lawyers, because he was allegedly “not pursuing Nancy Pelosi because of her official position,” they claimed.
DePape may serve a life sentence in prison if found guilty.
In addition, DePape is charged separately in state court with attempted murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, elder abuse, domestic burglary, and other offenses, for which he has entered a not guilty plea.
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