Paul Pelosi expected to testify in federal hammer attack trial

Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who was attacked by a man with a hammer looking for his wife in the middle of the night, is expected to take the stand at David DePape’s federal criminal trial on Monday.

DePape’s lawyer Jodi Linker laid out a narrow legal defense during opening statements last week, telling jurors that her client wasn’t at Pelosi’s house due to her duties in Congress but by what he believes is an obligation to stop a larger and more devious plan to make the country morally bankrupt.

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Linker claimed DePape went down a right-wing conspiracy theory rabbit hole and believed far-fetched allegations about people like Democratic megadonor George Soros, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks.

Linker told the San Francisco jury that DePape, a onetime nude enthusiast-turned-hemp jewelry maker, wholeheartedly believes “Tom Hanks, the actor, raped a 13-year-old girl.”

DePape has been charged with two federal crimes: assault on an immediate family member of a federal official and attempted kidnapping of a federal official. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Prosecutors claim he wanted to find Nancy Pelosi on Oct. 28, 2022, the night he broke into the couple’s Pacific Heights home. DePape researched the congresswoman about a week before the attack and looked up members of her family, including her children and grandchildren, they said. DePape thought the former speaker was “evil” and had “planned to kidnap her, to hold her hostage, to break her kneecaps, to teach her a lesson,” they added.

Instead of finding the longtime lawmaker, DePape found her husband at the residence.

DePape allegedly screamed “Where’s Nancy?” repeatedly at Paul Pelosi, who managed to make a 911 telephone call in which he spoke to the dispatcher and left the line open for authorities. The dispatcher, realizing something was wrong, sent the police to the address. When the authorities arrived, they saw both men with their hands on a 5-pound steel hammer. They were both told to drop the hammer, but DePape wrestled it from Pelosi and hit him on the head with it. He was immediately arrested, and Pelosi was taken to the hospital after suffering extensive wounds.

Following the attack, DePape told a San Francisco Police Department investigator he was on a “suicide mission” and had planned to take the former speaker hostage until she took back comments she made about former President Donald Trump losing the 2020 election. Nancy Pelosi was asleep in Washington when the attack on her husband took place.

DePape’s comments, coupled with his history, intensified concern that right-wing rhetoric had inspired the violence against Paul Pelosi, similar to the riots on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.

Over the weekend, Trump joked at a rally, “We had no terror during my administration. The only terror we had was Nancy Pelosi, who’s a crazed lunatic.”

He continued, turning his attention to the attack on Paul Pelosi.

“What the hell was going on with her husband?” Trump asked a cheering crowd. “Let’s not ask. Let’s not ask. I’ll withdraw that statement. By the way, she’s got a wall around her house — obviously in that case it didn’t work very well.”

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DePape faces several other felony charges in a state court that do not rely on Pelosi being a member of Congress.

His federal trial is only expected to last a week.