The attacker of former Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband detailed in a San Francisco court on Tuesday his conspiratorial beliefs that led him to hatch a nebulous plan to end alleged American government corruption.
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• Also read: Assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband: Suspect claims he was “pretty friendly.”
Paul Pelosi “was never my target and I’m sorry he was hurt,” assured David DePape, according to local station FOX KTVU. He fractured her skull with a hammer when he realized his “plan was essentially ruined.”
This former nudist activist is being prosecuted for assault and attempted kidnapping of Ms. Pelosi. Charges that could see him sentenced to life in prison.
Equipped with rope, gloves and adhesive tape, the forty-year-old entered the Pelosi couple’s house in San Francisco at the end of October 2022, a few days before the midterm elections.
AFP
The former President of the House of Representatives, then the third person in the American state and a regular target of right-wing extremist conspiracy theories, was in Washington at the time.
According to prosecutors, David DePape asked “Where’s Nancy?” several times before attacking her husband, who cleverly managed to alert the police. When agents arrived at the last minute, they captured the attack on their body-worn camera.
According to several American media outlets, Mr. DePape cried several times on the witness stand on Tuesday as he laid out his vision of the world.
He explained that he listens to very right-wing podcasts and believes in conspiracy theories, from the organization of the September 11, 2001 attacks by the American government itself to the existence of a pedophilia network that profits from the political elite.
His original plan was to “lure in” a feminist academic, Nancy Pelosi, whom he accuses of turning America’s schools into “pedophile factories” and destroying children’s sense of identity, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The defendant also admitted wanting to attack other figures, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, President Hunter Biden’s son and actor Tom Hanks.
Paul Pelosi seemed to feel “genuine remorse for the corruption in (Washington) DC,” he said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Things were going quite well until the last second.”
David DePape has pleaded not guilty in the case. His defense acknowledges the attack but disputes the fact that he wanted to target Ms. Pelosi or her husband because of his status as a federal official – a key factor in the prosecution.
In addition to this federal lawsuit, it must also be heard separately in the California courts.