Federal trial of Pelosi attack suspect renews focus on political violence
David DePape led a lonely life, working as a carpenter and seemingly obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories on the Internet, where he railed about “wokism,” questioned the Holocaust and embraced Pizzagate and QAnon.
Then, in October 2022, police said, 43-year-old Mr. DePape burst into Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and beat her husband to death while she was still the speaker of the House of Representatives. Authorities said he told investigators he planned to take hostage Mrs. Pelosi, who has long been the subject of virulent attacks by right-wing leaders and pundits who called her an enemy of the United States.
The case will now be presented to a jury when Mr. DePape’s federal trial begins in San Francisco on Thursday. To the extent it explores his personal grudge against Mrs. Pelosi and other politicians, it also highlights the online disinformation cycle fueled by conspiracy theorists, conservative activists, elected officials and media outlets.
That the case comes to trial at all is a surprise given the evidence. The vicious attack on Paul Pelosi, who was 82 at the time, was captured on police body cameras. Mr. DePape admitted to the crimes in a police interview after his arrest, prosecutors say. Him too called a local television station in January he said he was acting to oppose tyranny and apologized for “not getting more of it.”
“I think he wants a trial,” said Laurie L. Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “He wants to use this as his platform, as a showcase for his beliefs. “I think the court will close the case, but it’s the same reason why he called the media from prison to talk about the case.”
Mr. 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.
At the time of the attack, in the early morning hours of October 28, 2022, Mrs. Pelosi was in Washington and her husband was sleeping at the couple’s home in San Francisco’s upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood.
“Where’s Nancy?” the intruder asked repeatedly. When Mr. Pelosi asked why he wanted to see her, the man replied, “Well, she’s No. 2 in line for the presidency, right?” according to authorities.
When police arrived shortly after Mr. Pelosi secretly called 911, officers found Mr. Pelosi and the intruder calmly, each with a hand on a hammer. After police asked them to drop it, the intruder grabbed the gun and smashed it into Mr. Pelosi’s head. He suffered a skull fracture that required surgery and spent six days in a San Francisco hospital.
The attack sparked fears of political violence ahead of last year’s midterm elections, with many seeing it as a follow-up to years of right-wing attacks on Ms. Pelosi, often in dehumanizing language.
In an interview with San Francisco police after his arrest, Mr. DePape said he planned to take Ms. Pelosi hostage and interrogate her, according to the federal complaint. Mr. DePape “articulated that he viewed Nancy as the ‘leader of the pack’ of lies told by the Democratic Party,” according to the complaint, and said he would “break her kneecaps” if she lied to him.
Police have seized a long list of items they say DePape was carrying when they arrested him, including zip ties, duct tape, a passport, two driver’s licenses and $9,126 in cash.
Police said Mr. DePape told investigators he had a list of other targets, including the actor Tom Hanks; Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son; Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California; and Gayle Rubin, a feminist scholar.
Although much of the evidence against Mr. DePape has been in the public sphere for months, one mystery hangs over the trial as it begins: the identity of “Target 1,” an individual identified to police by Mr. DePape as someone he hoped to lure by taking Mrs. Pelosi hostage. Despite objections from the prosecution, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has ruled that the defense may call ‘Target 1’ as a witness.
Mr. DePape, who is Canadian and was in the United States illegally when he was arrested, had lived for a time under a tree in a park in Berkeley, California, after leaving the home he shared for years with a former romantic partner. He’d moved to the Bay Area in his twenties, dabbled in psychedelics, protested the Iraq war and sold hemp bracelets. Later he worked in the carpentry shop.
Interviews with people who knew Mr. DePape, as well as an examination of his voluminous online writings, painted a portrait of a man deeply absorbed by some of the most virulent right-wing conspiracy theories. According to his blog posts, the online harassment campaign Gamergate – which started in 2014 and had misogynistic undertones – was for him a gateway to the dark corners of the internet, where homophobic and bigoted views flourish.
“We’re at a point now where you can’t really ignore what’s happening on the dark edges of the internet,” said Amarnath Amarasingam, a professor at the School of Religion at Queen’s University in Ontario and an expert on extremism. “Because they increasingly have a spillover effect into real life.”
The attack led to even more disinformation. Elon Musk promoted a conspiracy involving male prostitution. Donald J. Trump thought the attack may have been staged. Tucker Carlson expressed doubts about the facts, saying he was just “asking questions.”
In the run-up to the trial, Mr. DePape’s lawyers, two federal public defenders, have revealed little about how they plan to defend him. One defense strategy they will not pursue is pleading insanity or diminished mental capacity, according to legal motions filed before the trial.
Mr. DePape has also been charged with numerous state crimes. The next hearing in the state’s case is scheduled for Nov. 29, when a judge is expected to set a trial date. By then, the federal lawsuit will likely be completed. If Mr. DePape is convicted and given a lengthy prison sentence, prosecutors could try to resolve their case with a plea bargain or drop it entirely.