Paul Pelosi hammer trial: Pelosi recalls waking up in pool of his own blood

Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), testified Monday about the night he “woke up in a pool of his own blood” after being attacked by a man who broke into his house carrying zip ties and a hammer and demanded to speak to his wife.

“The door opened and a very large man came in with a hammer in one hand and some ties in the other, and he said, ‘Where’s Nancy?'” the 83-year-old told jurors. “I’m asleep and he bursts in the door, and that woke me up.”

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David DePape, a Canadian national, has been charged with assault on an immediate family member of a federal official and attempted kidnapping of a federal official. If convicted, he would face life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Pelosi testified he didn’t set his home alarm before going to bed and didn’t hear DePape break in but that he “recognized I was in serious danger” when he saw DePape.

“He was standing in the doorway, and I assume he was 3, 4 feet away from me,” Pelosi said. “It was a tremendous sense of shock to see somebody had broken into the house.”

Pelosi tried to escape but failed.

“The first thing I tried to do was get up and try to get to the elevator because if I can get to the elevator, there’s a phone in the elevator, and I could close the door so he couldn’t get to me,” he said, adding, “I walked toward the door, but he blocked me.”

When he told DePape his wife was in Washington, D.C., DePape replied he’d have to tie him up and wait for the longtime California lawmaker to return. Pelosi testified that DePape said the former speaker was “the leader of the pack” and that he “had to take her out.”

Eric Risberg/AP

Pelosi managed to make a cryptic 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 his address.

Pelosi, who at times got emotional on the stand, said DePape threatened his life.

“It’s over for me,” Pelosi recalled DePape telling him. “I’m going to have to take you out.”

Pelosi was able to convince DePape to leave the bedroom and go downstairs, telling him, “Since all your stuff is downstairs, why don’t we go downstairs? You can tie me up and you can get some sleep.”

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 multiple times on the head with it. He was immediately arrested, and Pelosi was taken to the emergency room after suffering extensive wounds.

He spent six days in the hospital, where he underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands.

Prosecutors claim DePape wanted to find Nancy Pelosi on Oct. 28, 2022, the night he broke into the couple’s Pacific Heights home. DePape stalked the congresswoman and her family before the attack, looking up 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.

Pelosi told jurors that he hadn’t talked about the attack to anyone beyond investigators.

“I’ve tried to put it out of my mind,” he said. “I made the best effort I possibly can to not relive this.”

(Getty Images/AP)

Earlier Monday, prosecutors called on several law enforcement officials, including an FBI agent, to provide context around the extensive video footage at the heart of the government’s case against DePape. A U.S. Capitol Police officer who monitors the surveillance cameras at the Pelosis’ home, and another who has protected Nancy Pelosi since 2006, as well as a Bay Area Rapid Transit police sergeant, were also called to the stand.

DePape’s lawyer Jodi Linker laid out a narrow legal defense during opening statements last week, claiming DePape didn’t stalk 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.

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.

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DePape’s federal trial is expected to wrap up later this week.

He is still facing several other felony charges in state court that do not rely on Pelosi being a member of Congress.