The man accused of attacking the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer told police he wanted to hold the Democratic leader hostage and “break her knees” to show other members of Congress there were ” consequences to actions,” authorities said Monday. In a chilling federal complaint, officials say David DePape, 42, carrying zip ties, tape and a rope in a backpack, broke into the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday morning, climbed upstairs where 82-year-old Paul Pelosi was sleeping and asked to speak to “Nancy”. “This house and the speaker herself were specifically targeted,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said at a news conference Monday afternoon announcing the charges against DePape, including attempted murder. “This was politically motivated,” Jenkins said. He implored the public to “mind the words we speak and tone down our political rhetoric.” Investigators believe DePape researched in advance to target Pelosi, Jenkins told The Associated Press. “This was not something he did on the spur of the moment,” he said. In a statement late Monday, Speaker Pelosi said her family was “very grateful” for “thousands of messages conveying concern, prayers and best wishes.” Her husband underwent surgery for a fractured skull and other injuries after the attack. He said he was making “steady progress in a long recovery process.” The hard-hitting narrative laid out by state and federal prosecutors contrasts with mocking jokes and conspiracy theories being floated by far-right figures and even some top Republicans just a week before the midterm elections. Record number of security threats against lawmakers and elected officials. At a campaign event Monday in Arizona, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake drew laughs as she joked about security at Pelosi’s home. In addition to the state charges, DePape was also charged Monday in federal court with influencing, obstructing or retaliating against a federal official by threatening or injuring a family member. He also faces one count of attempted kidnapping of a United States official on official duty. No attorney has been listed for DePape. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on the state charges, and prosecutors will ask that he be held in jail without bail. Authorities said DePape smashed a glass door in the back of the house with a hammer, went to an upstairs bedroom and told a stunned Paul Pelosi to wake up. When Paul Pelosi told the intruder his wife wasn’t home, DePape said he would wait — even after being told she wouldn’t be home for a few days. The assailant then began removing ties to bind Pelosi, the complaint says. DePape told investigators he wanted to speak with Speaker Pelosi and viewed her as the “leader of all the lies that the Democratic Party has told,” according to the eight-page complaint. “If she told DePape the ‘truth,’ he would let her go, and if she ‘lied,’ he would break her knees,” the complaint states. “By breaking Nancy’s knees, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other members of Congress that there were consequences for the actions,” the complaint said De Pape told investigators. The federal complaint says DePape said he wanted to “use Nancy to lure” another person, but does not provide details of such a plan. After DePape confronted Paul Pelosi in his bedroom, Pelosi tried to get to an elevator in the house to get to a phone, but DePape blocked his way, Jenkins said. Wearing a nightgown, Pelosi then told the attacker he needed to use the bathroom, allowing him to reach for his cell phone and call 911, according to authorities. Police were dispatched to the home in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood around 2:20 a.m. Friday. They arrived two minutes later to see the two men fighting over a hammer, and Depp then hit Pelosi at least once before officers tackled him, Jenkins said. He said the police body camera footage “shows the attack itself.” Police later found a second hammer, along with rope, tape and a journal in DePape’s backpack. In the ambulance at the hospital, Paul Pelosi told police he had never seen DePape before, the complaint said. And Jenkins said Sunday, “We have nothing to indicate that these two men knew each other prior to this incident,” a statement that contradicted wildly unsupported suggestions on social media. DePape told investigators he didn’t leave even though he knew Paul Pelosi had called 911 because “like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender,” the affidavit said. Speaker Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time of the attack, quickly returned to California. Unlike presidents, congressional leaders have security protection for themselves, but not their families. DePape is a Canadian citizen who entered the United States legally in 2000 but has overstayed his visa, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The family described DePape as estranged, and he was known by some in San Francisco as a nudist activist who seemed to espouse a number of conspiracy theories. DePape lived for the past two years in a garage at a residence in Richmond, California, the complaint said. The attack was a disturbing echo of the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol, when rioters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election defeat of Donald Trump stormed the halls chanting eerily “Where’s Nancy?” Some brought zippers. Elon Musk over the weekend posted and then deleted a fringe website’s conspiracy theories to its millions of followers, as the Twitter market has raised concerns that the social media platform will no longer seek to curb misinformation and hate speech. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was among those who made light of the attack on Paul Pelosi, posting crude jokes on Twitter. With nearly 10,000 threats against members of Congress in the last year, US Capitol Police advised lawmakers to take precautions. Chief Tom Manger, who leads the force, said the threat from lone wolf attacks has increased and the most significant threat facing the force is the historically high number of threats against law enforcement officers, thousands more than a few years ago. The beating of the speaker’s husband follows other attacks and threats. This summer, a man carrying a gun, knife and zipper was arrested near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in Maryland after threatening to kill him. In 2017, Republican Congressman Steve Scalise was seriously injured when a Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on Republicans at a congressional baseball practice game.
Mascaro reported from Washington and Dazio from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
