Police body camera footage of attack on Paul Pelosi could be released at trial as GOP demands footage
Conservatives continue to speculate about attack
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Your support makes all the difference.Body camera footage of an attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could be released as suspected assailant David DePape faces trial on a host of state and federal charges.
“There are no plans to release the body cam footage prior to court proceedings,” a San Francisco Police Department spokesperson told The Independent on Tuesday.
Members of the Pelosi family are expected to be shown the body camera footage and hear the 911 call that was recorded about the attack, CNN reported.
In an interview on Tuesday with the network, San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins confirmed that police body camera footage shows the attack on Mr Pelosi in detail.
“You do see him get attacked on that footage,” the official told anchor Erin Burnett.
Ms Jenkins said she couldn’t release many more details at this early stage in the prosecution.
“Our main objective is to protect the investigation as well as the prosecution,” she said.
The prosecutor added that the alleged attacker had been “cooperative” with police so far.
A number of prominent conservatives have been calling for the release of the footage, part of a larger movement among Republicans spreading conspiracy theories and downplaying Mr DePape’s apparent links to right-wing extremism.
In a podcast episode on Monday, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly alleged a “rat” inside the police force was keeping details like video footage from the public.
“Let’s see it,” Ms Kelly said. “Let’s see it all. I don’t know what went on. I know enough to smell a rat. There’s something going on here that they’re not telling us. I just don’t know what it is.”
Her guest, Arkansas US Senator Tom Cotton, also called for police to release any footage of the attack.
Others, like conservative commentator John Cardillo, have made similar calls for footage.
“The entire fact pattern of the case makes no sense whatsoever,” the former New York police officer told far-right radio host and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
Across social media, commenters with apparent right-wing views aired similar conspiracies about the break-in.
They were joined in their speculations by powerful Republicans.
Many conservatives have spread conspiracies about the attack on Mr Pelosi, or even made light out of it.
Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake drew laughs from a crowd while joking about the attack and its relation to concerns over school shootings.
Donald Trump repeated a debunked conspiracy theory that the assailant hadn’t actually broken into the Pelosi home
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, meanwhile, shared a post from a far-right commentator casting doubt that alleged attacked Mr DePape was motivated by right-wing ideology.
As The Independent has reported, Mr DePape left a trail of extremism online including Holocaust denial, anti-trans hate, antisemitism, racism, and QAnon theories.
The 42-year-old DePape is accused of breaking into the couple’s San Francisco mansion and attacking the Speaker’s husband Paul with a hammer before being disarmed and arrested by police.
Mr DePape pleaded not guilty to all state charges in his first court appearance on Tuesday.