SAN FRANCISCO –
The man accused of attacking the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer told police he wanted to take the Democratic leader hostage and “break her kneecaps” to show other members of the House of Representatives. Congress that there were “consequences of the actions,” officials said Monday.
In a chilling federal complaint, authorities say David DePape, 42, wearing zip ties, duct tape and a rope in a backpack, broke into the couple’s home in San Francisco early Friday morning, ran up the stairs where 82-year-old Paul Pelosi slept and demanded to speak to “Nancy.”
“This house and the speaker herself were specifically targeted,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said at a Monday night news conference announcing the state charges against DePape, including attempted murder.
“This was politically motivated,” Jenkins said. She implored the public to “watch the words we say and turn down the volume on our political rhetoric.”
Investigators believe DePape had been digging ahead of time to target Pelosi, Jenkins said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“This was not something he did on the spur of the moment,” he said.
In a statement Monday night, Speaker Pelosi said her family was “very grateful” for “thousands of messages conveying concern, prayers and warm wishes.” Her husband underwent surgery for a skull fracture and other injuries after the attack. She said that she was making “steady progress in what will be a long recovery process.”
The stark narrative put forth by state and federal prosecutors contrasts with the derisive jokes and conspiracy theories being circulated by far-right figures and even some prominent Republicans just a week before the midterm elections. A record number of security threats against legislators and election officials have been reported.
At a campaign event Monday in Arizona, Kari Lake, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, roared with laughter as she joked about security at Pelosi’s home.
In addition to the state charges, DePape was also charged Monday in federal court with influencing, impeding or retaliating against a federal official by threatening or injuring a family member. He also faces one charge of attempted kidnapping of a United States official due to his official duties.
No attorney has been listed for DePape. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on the state charges, and prosecutors will ask that he remain in jail without bail.
Authorities said DePape smashed a glass door at the back of the house with a hammer, went to the upstairs bedroom and told a shocked Paul Pelosi to wake up.
When Paul Pelosi told the intruder his wife wasn’t home, DePape said he would wait, even after being told she wouldn’t be home for a few days. The assailant then began pulling out twisted ties to tie up Pelosi, the complaint says.
DePape told investigators he wanted to speak with House Speaker Pelosi and considered her the “leader of the pack of lies told by the Democratic Party,” according to the eight-page complaint.
“If she told DePape the ‘truth,’ he would let her go and if she ‘lie,’ he would break her kneecaps,” the complaint alleges.
“By breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other members of Congress that the actions had consequences,” the complaint DePape told investigators.
The federal complaint says DePape said he wanted to “use Nancy to lure” another person, but provides no details of such a plan.
After DePape confronted Paul Pelosi in her bedroom, Pelosi tried to reach an elevator in the house to reach a phone, but DePape blocked her way, Jenkins said. In her nightgown, Pelosi told the shooter that he had to use the bathroom, which allowed her to get to his cell phone and call 911, according to authorities.
Police were dispatched to the home in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood around 2:20 a.m. Friday. They arrived two minutes later to see the two men wrestling over a hammer, and then DePape punched Pelosi at least once before being tackled by officers, Jenkins said.
She said police body camera footage “shows the attack itself.” Police later found a second hammer, along with rope, duct tape and a journal in DePape’s backpack.
In the ambulance to the hospital, Paul Pelosi told police that he had never seen DePape before, according to the complaint. And Jenkins said Sunday: “We have nothing to suggest that these two men knew each other prior to this incident,” a statement that contradicts unsupported vulgar suggestions on social media.
DePape told investigators he didn’t leave even though he knew Paul Pelosi had called 911 because “like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting tyranny without the option of surrender,” the affidavit says. .
Speaker Pelosi, who was in Washington, DC, at the time of the attack, quickly returned to California. Unlike presidents, congressional leaders have security protections for themselves, but not for their families.
DePape is a Canadian citizen who entered the United States legally in 2000 but stayed long after his visa expired, according to a US official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The family described DePape as estranged, and he was known by some in San Francisco as a pro-nudity activist who seemed to embrace a variety of conspiracy theories. DePape has lived for the past two years in a garage at a residence in Richmond, California, according to the complaint.
The attack was an eerie echo of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, when rioters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election loss over Donald Trump stormed the halls ominously calling “Where is he?” Nancy?” Some wore bridles.
Over the weekend, Elon Musk tweeted, then deleted, conspiracy theories of a fringe website for his millions of followers, as his purchase of Twitter has raised concerns that the social media platform is no longer seeking to limit the misinformation and hate speech.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was among those who disparaged the attack on Paul Pelosi and tweeted rude jokes about it.
With nearly 10,000 threats against members of Congress in the last year, the US Capitol Police have advised lawmakers to take precautions. Chief Tom Manger, who heads the force, has said the threat from lone attackers has been on the rise and that the most significant threat facing the force is the historically high number of threats against lawmakers, thousands more than a few years before.
The beating of the speaker’s husband follows other attacks and threats. This summer, a man carrying a gun, knife and cable ties was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home in Maryland after threatening to kill him. In 2017, Republican Rep. Steve Scalise was seriously injured when a Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on Republicans at a congressional baseball practice.
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Mascaro reported from Washington and Dazio from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.