Inside Pelosi House With an Intruder on a ‘Suicide Mission’

Joel Rosenblatt
·5 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- The intruder who struck Paul Pelosi in the head with a hammer, leaving him unconscious in a pool of blood, was in his own words on a “suicide mission,” according to law enforcement authorities -- not just to break the kneecaps of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but to go after other politicians and their relatives.

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On the same day David DePape pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of the 82-year-old businessman, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins presented fresh details about the struggle in a court filing aimed at making sure the alleged assailant stays locked up through the end of his trial.

After the 2 a.m. attack on Oct. 28 but before he was questioned by police, DePape told officers and medics at the Pelosi residence that he was frustrated with the “level of lies coming out of Washington, D.C.,” according to Tuesday’s filing.

“I came here to have a little chat with his wife,” DePape added.

While Paul Pelosi was in the way of his primary target that night, “I didn’t really want to hurt him, but you know this was a suicide mission,” DePape said, adding, “I’m not going to stand here and do nothing even if it cost me my life.”

Paul Pelosi is recovering after surgery to repair a fractured skull and serious injuries to his right arm and hands. Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington during the break-in at her San Francisco home, said in a statement Monday that her husband is making steady progress in what’s expected to be a long recovery.

Capitol Police, who provide security for the speaker, had a security camera trained on the Pelosi home at the time of the attack and filmed the break-in, but officers in Washington were not watching and did not notice it until going back over the footage, a source familiar with the investigation said early Wednesday.

Read More: Capitol Police to Boost Lawmaker Security After Paul Pelosi Hurt

The attack came less than two weeks before the US midterm election, putting lawmakers on edge and focusing attention on the potential for violence in a politically polarized nation. DePape, who authorities say has lived for the last two years in a converted garage apartment in Richmond, California, has been linked to blog posts that railed against the government and technology giants, and espoused far-right conspiracy theories.

Speaking outside of court Tuesday, his lawyer, public defender Adam Lipson, said DePape’s exposure to “political misinformation, propaganda” could be raised in his defense.

“There’s been a lot of speculation regarding Mr. DePape’s vulnerability to misinformation,” Lipson told reporters. “That’s certainly something we’re going to look into, that we’re going to delve into, as his defense team.” Lipson said, adding that he has not yet assessed Mr. DePape’s “mental state.”

According to the filing, DePape threatened to tie up Paul Pelosi with plastic zip ties so that DePape could sleep while he awaited Nancy Pelosi’s return home. Paul Pelosi engaged DePape in conversation, attempting to calm him, asking him why he wanted to talk to his wife.

“Well, she’s number two in line for the presidency, right?” DePape said. The intruder said “they are all corrupt,” according to the filing, and “we’ve got to take them all out.”

Even after DePape became aware that Paul Pelosi had called 911, he continued the conversation, according to the filing. It describes a discussion between the two men and a police dispatcher in which Pelosi gently raises the danger he faces while trying not to provoke DePape.

Paul Pelosi and DePape were struggling to gain control of the hammer when police arrived, according to the report. When Pelosi lost his grip, DePape lunged, striking him in the head at full force. DePape later told police he knew he’d been caught on camera and that the 911 call was recorded.

“When asked if he had any other plans, defendant named several targets, including a local professor, several prominent state and federal politicians, and relatives of those state and federal politicians,” according to the filing.

In his first court appearance Tuesday in San Francisco’s Hall of Justice, DePape, a heavyset man with long hair wearing an orange jumpsuit, stayed silent during a brief hearing.

Besides attempted murder, the state charges against him include assault with a deadly weapon, residential burglary, elder abuse, false imprisonment of an elder and threatening a public official’s family member. Lipson entered DePape’s not guilty pleas.

DePape’s intent “could not have been clearer,” Jenkins wrote in Tuesday’s filing, arguing for the suspect to remain in custody. “He forced his way into the Pelosi home intending to take the person third in line to the presidency of the United States hostage and to seriously harm her.”

The US Justice Department separately accused him of attempted kidnapping of a US official and assault of an immediate family member of a US official in retaliation for performing her duties. DePape faces decades in prison in both cases if convicted.

US prosecutors have placed a “hold” on DePape, meaning that if he were somehow to win release from San Francisco County jail, he’d be immediately taken into federal custody, Lipson said.

“Typically in a case like this, the federal prosecution would have precedence but that’s not necessarily the fact in this case,” the public defender said. “That’s something that will be sorted out in the near future.”

The state case is People of the State of California v. DePape, 22012966, California Superior Court, San Francisco County (San Francisco). The federal case is USA v. DePape, 22-mj-71419, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

--With assistance from Billy House.

(Adds details on security footage in fifth paragraph)

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