Federal prosecutors charged the man accused of breaking into the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with attempting to kidnap Pelosi and with assaulting a relative of a federal official, according to charging documents filed Monday.
The suspect, David DePape, 42, was apprehended by police at the Pelosi home in the early morning hours Friday. Police said he forcibly entered through the back door of the house, encountered Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, 82, and, following a struggle over a hammer, struck him with it.
DePape was looking for Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, to interrogate the speaker on an unspecified political matter, according to the federal complaint. If she told the “truth,” he would let her go, but if she “lied,” he intended to break her kneecaps — forcing her to be wheeled into Congress as a lesson to other Democrats, DePape told police officers in an interview.
He had “a roll of tape, white rope, a second hammer, a pair of rubber and cloth gloves, and zip ties,” according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, which filed the charges.
The swift action by the Justice Department in bringing federal charges — on the same day the San Francisco district attorney’s office was expected to file its own charges against DePape — reflects the department’s urgency in addressing what it sees as a politically motivated crime shortly before the 2022 midterm elections. There has been a surge in threats and attacks against figures of both political parties in recent years, and Nancy Pelosi, in particular, has long been the subject of vilification and threats.
Paul Pelosi, who alerted police, underwent surgery Friday after sustaining a fractured skull and serious injuries to his hands and right arm, according to a spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi. In a letter to colleagues Saturday, Nancy Pelosi said that Paul Pelosi was continuing to improve. Law enforcement officials said that DePape sustained “minor injuries” and was treated at a hospital.
The affidavit from an FBI agent that accompanied the charges provided the most complete, and chilling, narrative of the break-in to date. It detailed a groggy early-morning home invasion that culminated with a single, sudden hammer blow, delivered in the presence of shocked police officers.
DePape broke a glass door and entered the residence, awakening Paul Pelosi, who confronted him and then ducked into a bathroom to call 911 at 2:23 a.m. Officers with the San Francisco Police Department arrived eight minutes later to find the two men struggling over a hammer.
When they asked what was going on, DePape “responded that everything was good,” the agent wrote. At that moment, DePape yanked the hammer from Paul Pelosi’s grip and struck him once in the head, rendering him unconscious on the floor.
The officers quickly restrained DePape, who told them he had left his backpack near the smashed door window on the rear porch. When they examined its contents, they found another hammer, tape, rope, two pairs of gloves — rubber and cloth — and a journal.
Police recovered the zip ties in the bedroom. DePape later told officers he had intended to tie up Paul Pelosi until the speaker arrived home.
Kidnapping and assault are usually charged under state laws by local authorities, but in extreme circumstances, such as cases involving federal officials or judges, they can become federal crimes.
If convicted, DePape would face a maximum of 20 years in prison for the attempted kidnapping of a federal official in the performance of official duties, and up to 30 years for assaulting an immediate member of a federal official’s family and inflicting a serious injury with a dangerous weapon.
Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson had no comment on the charges.
It was not immediately clear who was representing DePape in the case.
Federal law makes such an assault a federal crime when it is done “with the intent to impede, intimidate, or interfere with” the work of an official or “with intent to retaliate against” that person — a charge that stems from DePape’s attempts to find the speaker.
Paul Pelosi remains in the intensive care unit of a San Francisco hospital, surrounded by his family, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The attack on the Pelosi home in San Francisco contained echoes of the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the Capitol. When rioters broke into the halls of Congress that day, some of them carried zip ties and shouted, “Nancy, Nancy, where are you, Nancy?” When he was apprehended Friday, DePape also was carrying zip ties; a person who had been briefed on the attack said DePape had been loudly demanding to know where Pelosi was.
Law enforcement officials have not specified the exact motivation for the attack, and much remains unknown about DePape. But authorities have been examining what appeared to be DePape’s copious online presence, which included angry rants and extremist views.
The domain of a blog written by a user who called himself “daviddepape” was registered to an address in Richmond, California, in August, and a resident close to that location said that DePape lived at that address. From August until the day before the attack on Paul Pelosi, the blog featured many antisemitic sentiments as well as concerns about pedophilia, anti-white racism, and “elite” control of the internet.
One of the blog posts suggested that there had been no mass gassing of prisoners at Auschwitz, and others were accompanied by malicious and stereotypical images. Another reposted a video lecture defending Adolf Hitler.