Paul Pelosi’s hammer attacker told police he had ‘other targets’ including Gavin Newsom and Tom Hanks, and wanted to kidnap Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in a revenge attack on the Democrats for Trump, according to new evidence submitted in court today.
David DePape is in court in San Francisco on charges of attempted murder. He broke into the Pelosi home on October 28, throwing himself through a downstairs window, then waking Paul, 82, who was sleeping in his upstairs bedroom.
There has been much mystery and intrigue surrounding the incident, and DePape’s own family insist he is neither evil nor violent.
In addition to unfounded conspiracy theories about whether Paul Pelosi knew his attacker or not, there has been more credible suspicion over why NBC retracted a news report that accurately described some of the details from the incident.
Today, bodycam footage from the night in question was revealed for the first time- but cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom to capture it. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office is yet to make it public, but it was shown to attorneys and the media present in the courtroom today.
Police officers in court today held up the hammer that was used and reenacted how Pelosi was struck
David DePape is facing charges of attempted murder and kidnapping. His family insist he is not violent
Paul and Nancy Pelosi pictured on December 4. His attacker, David DePape, is due in court today in California for his first appearance since he was arrested on suspicion of breaking into the Pelosi home and attacking Paul, 82, on October 28
In court today however, bodycam footage and interview videos, along with Pelosi’s 911 call, proved how Pelosi tried to remain as calm as possible after waking up to find DePape standing over him with a hammer.
In a video of his interview with police, DePape confessed that he was motivated by trying to seek ‘revenge’ on Democrats, who he thought had ‘persecuted’ Trump’s campaign by ‘submitting fake evidence of spying’.
He had other targets, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, and the actor Tom Hanks, he said.
Everybody there (in Washington) is crazy and corrupt and we need to take them out’
‘Everybody there (in Washington) is crazy and corrupt and we need to take them out,’ he said.
DePape had with him a backpack that contained a smaller hammer, a uniform costume, a Canadian passport, vitamins, underwear, crayons, scissors, toothbrush, money, water flavor packets, body worn cameras matches, cell phone and gloves.
When Pelosi first called 911, it was because he had convinced DePape to let him go to the bathroom, where his phone was charging, the court heard.
He told the operator there was a ‘man in the house’, after convincing DePape to let him use the bathroom.
DePape’s motive was also laid bare. In his police interview after being arrested, he told officers he was seeking revenge against Democrats because they’d submitted ‘fake evidence’ to the Trump campaign about spying.
DePape told officers that he had others he wanted to ‘target’, and that he wouldn’t be ‘stopped’ by Pelosi.
There had been speculation over why NBC pulled its previous report on the incident.
Previously filed court documents describe how Pelosi woke up to the attacker standing in his bedroom. He told police he didn’t want to spook him or panic him, so was calm as he called 911 and even as police arrived. It was only when police yelled out to DePape to ‘drop the hammer’ that he struck Pelosi, according to the documents
The evidence that may be presented today includes bodycam footage from the San Francisco Police Department and audio of Pelosi’s 911 call while DePape was in the house
A glass door at the Pelosi’s $8million San Francisco home was shattered after DePape allegedly made his way into the house
The report by Miguel Almaguer was accurate in detailing how police were already there when DePape struck Pelosi with a hammer, and in describing how Pelosi did not verbally cry for help or seem panicked when the cops arrived.
Those two details are confirmed in a court filing by San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
The filing, however, also reveals that Pelosi was trying to remain calm throughout the encounter, so didn’t communicate clearly that someone had broken into the house or that he felt he was in danger.
Pelosi was asleep upstairs in the couple’s home when he awoke to DePape standing over his bed. DePape told him he was there to kidnap his wife, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
In an effort to remain calm, Pelosi phoned 911 from the bathroom (after DePape allowed him to go there), but did not communicate clearly that someone had broken into the house, and when police arrived, he neither yelled nor screamed.
Police ended up going into the house, and were greeted by both DePape and Pelosi standing in the ‘dimly lit foyer.’
Pelosi answered the door with his left hand, keeping his right hand on the bottom of the handle of the hammer that DePape had brought with him.
DePape had one hand on the top of the handle of the hammer, and was holding Pelosi’s arm with the other.
The way the charging document describes it, the situation had been calm until this moment, with Pelosi repeatedly trying to soothe the intruder and not panic him.
It was only when cops screamed: ‘Drop the hammer!’ that he pulled it back, out of Pelosi’s grip, and used it to strike him in the head.
‘Defendant wrenched the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi, immediately stepped back, and lunged at Mr. Pelosi, striking Mr. Pelosi in the head at full force with the hammer, which knocked Mr. Pelosi unconscious.
‘The officers rushed into the house, tackled Defendant, and disarmed him. Mr. Pelosi remained unresponsive for about three minutes, waking up in a pool of his own blood,’ it reads.
