The trial of the man who attacked former Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection responsible for judging a case that rocked the American political class last fall.
• Also read: IN PICTURES | Court releases video of violent attack on Paul Pelosi
Suspect David DePape, a believer in numerous conspiracy theories, violently fractured Paul Pelosi’s skull with his tools before being arrested by police officers who filmed the attack on their pedestrian camera.
During this federal trial, the forty-year-old will be charged with assault and attempted kidnapping of Ms. Pelosi. He is also the subject of a separate case in the California courts.
He pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison.
This Canadian citizen, a former nudist activist, had entered the Pelosi House in San Francisco while the former third person of the American state, presiding over the House of Representatives, was in Washington.
Equipped in particular with rope, a pair of gloves and duct tape, he encountered her husband Paul Pelosi and asked: “Where is Nancy?” Before he was attacked, the octogenarian managed to call the police emergency number.
After his arrest, Mr DePape told police that he planned to “break the kneecaps” of the parliamentarian if she did not admit to the “lies” of the Democratic camp.
Among the conspiracy theories he shared on social networks, he notably claimed, contrary to all evidence, that the American election was stolen.
The suspect also told investigators that he was on a “suicide mission” and planned to attack “several prominent political figures” as well as their family members and a professor in the area, according to a document from the San Francisco district attorney’s office.
The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Ms. Pelosi, had already been targeted by protesters who violently broke into the Capitol on January 6, 2021, without managing to get their hands on them. She is regularly at the center of conspiracy theories from the American extreme right.
Mr. DePape’s defense tried unsuccessfully to get a change of scenery for the trial, arguing that holding it in San Francisco, a region that Ms. Pelosi represented in Congress for more than thirty years, harmed the impartiality of the debates.
If convicted, he could be deported to Canada after serving his sentence because he was in the United States illegally, according to local TV station KRON4.