Paul Pelosi attacker David DePape cries while testifying about conspiracies
David DePape described descent into online conspiracy theories
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David DePape, who’s facing federal charges for a 2022 San Francisco break-in aimed at kidnapping former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has told a court how he fell under the sway of right-wing conspiracy theories online.
Mr DePape was caught on police body camera attacking Ms Pelosi’s husband Paul with a hammer in October 2022, leaving him with serious injuries.
On the stand on Tuesday, the alleged kidnapper described watching conservative podcasters on YouTube and coming to believe in a QAnon-inflected conspiracy that elites were abusing children and that “everything was a lie coming from the press” about Donald Trump, per CNN.
He also described the moment police arrived at the couple’s San Francisco mansion and realised his “plan was ruined.”
“Things were going pretty good until the very last second,” he said, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, later adding he was ”scared” he may have killed Mr Pelosi in the attack.
The Canadian man has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him – attempted kidnapping of a federal official, and assault on a federal official’s immediate family member – with his attorneys arguing the attack wasn’t related to Ms Pelosi’s position in Congress, but rather to an admittedly “bizarre” QAnon-style delusion involving numerous high-profile figures like Tom Hanks and California governor Gavin Newsom.
“What matters is what brought David to that house — what David believed and what he intended,” attorney Jodi Linker said last week. “This is not a whodunit.”
Earlier this week, Mr Pelosi himself testified.
“I have not discussed this incident with anybody,” Mr Pelosi, who was left with serious skull injuries after the attack, said on the stand on Monday, according to KRON. “I’ve tried to put it out of my mind. I made the best effort I possibly can to not re-live this.”
“It’s over for me, I’m going to have to take you out,” he described Mr DePape as saying during the break-in.
Federal officials argue the charges are justified.
“It was a violent plan — a plan to kidnap Nancy Pelosi to hold her hostage, to break her kneecaps, to teach her a lesson,” Assistant US Attorney Laura Vartain Horn told the court at the beginning of the trial, arguing DePape saw Ms Pelosi as “evil, a liar and leader of the pack” of a group of high-profile figures factoring into a conspiracy theory that drove the attack.