Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, on Sunday called on the FBI to investigate protesters demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, suggesting without evidence that some activists may have ties to Russia and President Vladimir V. Putin.

“The fact that they are calling for a ceasefire is Mr. Putin's message,” Mrs. Pelosi said during an interview on CNN's “State of the Union.” “Make no mistake, this is directly related to what he would like to see. Same with Ukraine. It's about Putin's message. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous, organic and sincere. Some, I think, are connected to Russia.”

When asked if she believed some protesters were “Russian plants,” Mrs. Pelosi said, “Seeds or plants. I think some research needs to be done into certain types of financing. And I would ask the FBI to investigate that.”

Ms. Pelosi, who was first elected speaker in 2007 and again in 2019, led Democrats in the House of Representatives for two decades before stepping aside for Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader. Yet she remains influential among Democrats in Congress. Her comments appear to be the first time a prominent US politician has publicly suggested that Russia may be backing ceasefire protests to help stoke divisions among Democrats.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Ms. Pelosi's comments as “a baseless smear” and “downright authoritarian.”

“Her comments once again demonstrate the negative impact of decades of dehumanization of the Palestinian people by those who support Israeli apartheid,” Nihad Awad, the group's national executive director, said in a statement. “Rather than baselessly labeling these Americans as Russian collaborators, former House Speaker Pelosi and other political leaders should respect the will of the American people by calling for an end to the Netanyahu genocidal war.” government against the people of Gaza.”

Progressive activists and voters who support a ceasefire in Gaza have warned President Biden that his approach to the conflict would jeopardize his re-election and cost Democrats support at the ballot box in November. A variety of groups, including Jewish, human rights and anti-war organizations, have led protests across the country demanding an end to Israel's military campaign, which began after Hamas's deadly Oct. 7 attack. Pro-Palestinian protesters, citing the rising death toll and deep humanitarian crisis in Gaza, have disrupted Democratic campaign events in recent weeks, including Mr. Biden's public appearances and a speech that Mrs. Pelosi gave last week in Seattle.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mrs. Pelosi pointed out one post on social media by Ian Beerdera political scientist and professor at Columbia University, who wrote that “Putin is benefiting from the ongoing war in Gaza and the growing chaos in the Middle East.”

The spokesperson said Mrs. Pelosi would remain focused on “ending the suffering in Gaza” and would demand that all hostages be released.

“Speaker Pelosi has always supported and defended the right of all Americans to express their views through peaceful protest,” the statement said. “Speaker Pelosi is acutely aware of how foreign adversaries are meddling in American politics to sow division and influence our elections, and she wants to see further investigation ahead of the 2024 elections.”

Russia has expressed support for a ceasefire in Gaza, and Mr Putin has done so too used the conflict to criticize the role of the United States in the Middle East. Russia has also interfered in the past two presidential elections in the United States.

Democrats have been deeply divided over policy toward Israel since Hamas killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped another 240 in the Oct. 7 attack. More than 26,000 people have been killed in Israel's military response, according to Israel's Health Ministry.

A New York Times/Siena College poll found that voters broadly disapproved of Biden's handling of the conflict, with nearly as many Americans saying they want Israel's military campaign to end as those saying it should be stopped continued. The split poses an acute challenge for Mr. Biden as he seeks reelection and tries to hold together a Democratic coalition that elected him to the White House in 2020.

Many countries have called for a ceasefire; in December, 153 countries voted in favor of an immediate ceasefire in the United Nations General Assembly. The International Court of Justice told Israel on Friday that it must take action to prevent genocide in Gaza.

Nikki Haley escalated her attacks on Donald J. Trump on Saturday, directly criticizing his mental acuity for the first time after the former president appeared to confuse her with Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, during his rally on Friday evening in New Hampshire.

During a news conference with reporters after her campaign event in Peterborough, N.H., Ms. Haley stopped short of calling Mr. Trump mentally unfit. But she did wonder whether he would “care about it enough” to lead the nation.

“My parents are elderly and I love them very much,” she said. “But when you see them reach a certain age, there is a decline. That is a fact – ask any doctor: there is a decline.”

During his rally, the former president accused Ms. Haley of failing to provide proper security during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and connected her to the House committee that later investigated it. Ms. Haley, who was not in a government role at the time of the attack, was at home in South Carolina that day, according to campaign officials.

The former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations under Mr. Trump, Ms. Haley, 52, opened her presidential bid this year with calls for “new generational leadership” and mental competency tests for candidates who are 75 or older. Although she continued to emphasize these calls throughout her candidacyshe has reserved her sharpest attacks on mental fitness for President Biden and Congress, which she calls “the most privileged nursing home in the country.”

The last time she came this close to directly defeating Mr. Trump was in October, after he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, “very smart.” In response to these comments, Ms. Haley said, “To criticize the head of a country that just experienced massive bloodshed — no, that is not what we need in a president.”

Since her election night speech after the Iowa caucuses, Ms. Haley has sharpened her case against the former president, lumping Mr. Trump with Mr. Biden as backwards and barriers to an American revival. At her event in Keene, N.H., she criticized Mr. Trump for his leadership tone and asked the audience if they really wanted two “guys” in their 80s to vie for the presidency.

“I wasn't even in DC on January 6 – I wasn't in office yet,” she told the audience on Friday.

At a subsequent press conference, she suggested that the country was in too fragile a state to have a leader who is mentally unfit.

“It's a concern, and it's something Americans should be thinking about,” she said.

Former President Donald J. Trump on Friday appeared to confuse Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi during a speech in New Hampshire, accusing Ms. Haley of failing to provide adequate security during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and linking her to the House committee that investigated it.

Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former ambassador to the United Nations, never served in Congress and worked in the private sector during the Capitol riot.

On Friday night, Mr. Trump was mocking Ms. Haley for the size of crowds at her events and criticizing the news media when he took aim at the manner in which he delivered a speech in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. that preceded the attack on the Capitol.

“You know, when she comes here, she gets about nine people, and the press never reports on the crowds,” Mr. Trump said of Ms. Haley, whose attendance numbers have been at least in the double digits lately.

Then he changed the subject. “By the way, you know, they never report the crowd on January 6,” he said. “You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley.”

Mr. Trump then repeated his frequent claim that the bipartisan House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack — including Mr. Trump's actions that day — had “destroyed all information and all evidence.”

He then claimed that Ms. Haley was in charge of security that day, and that she and others had rejected his offer to send troops to the Capitol.

“Nikki Haley was in charge of security,” he said. (She wasn't.) “We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guardsmen, whatever they wanted. They rejected it. They don't want to talk about that.”

Mr. Trump, 77, often attacks President Biden, 81, because of his age and suggests that Mr. Biden is mentally unfit for office. “He can't put two sentences together,” Trump said on Friday. 'I can't put two sentences together. He needs a teleprompter.”

A Trump campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly tried to pin the blame for the Jan. 6 riot on Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats. There is no evidence, however, that Mr. Trump ever offered to send troops to the Capitol, or that Mrs. Pelosi, then the speaker of the House of Representatives, turned him down.

On January 6, 2021 at 3:52 p.m., Ms. Haley reposted photos of besieged officials in the Capitol, to write on Twitter: “A disgrace in the eyes of the world and total sadness for our country. Wake up America.”

Former President Donald J. Trump on Friday appeared to confuse Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi during a speech in New Hampshire, accusing Ms. Haley of failing to provide adequate security during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and linking her to the House committee that investigated it.

Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former ambassador to the United Nations, never served in Congress and worked in the private sector during the Capitol riot.

On Friday night, Mr. Trump was mocking Ms. Haley for the size of crowds at her events and criticizing the news media when he took aim at the manner in which he delivered a speech in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. that preceded the attack on the Capitol.

“You know, when she comes here, she gets about nine people, and the press never reports on the crowds,” Mr. Trump said of Ms. Haley, whose attendance numbers have been at least in the double digits lately.

Then he changed the subject. “By the way, you know, they never report the crowd on January 6,” he said. “You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley.”

Mr. Trump then repeated his frequent claim that the bipartisan House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack — including Mr. Trump's actions that day — had “destroyed all information and all evidence.”

He then claimed that Ms. Haley was in charge of security that day, and that she and others had rejected his offer to send troops to the Capitol.

“Nikki Haley was in charge of security,” he said. (She wasn't.) “We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guardsmen, whatever they wanted. They rejected it. They don't want to talk about that.”

Mr. Trump, 77, often attacks President Biden, 81, because of his age and suggests that Mr. Biden is mentally unfit for office. “He can't put two sentences together,” Trump said on Friday. 'I can't put two sentences together. He needs a teleprompter.”

A Trump campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly tried to pin the blame for the Jan. 6 riot on Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats. There is no evidence, however, that Mr. Trump ever offered to send troops to the Capitol, or that Mrs. Pelosi, then the speaker of the House of Representatives, turned him down.

On January 6, 2021 at 3:52 p.m., Ms. Haley reposted photos of besieged officials in the Capitol, to write on Twitter: “A disgrace in the eyes of the world and total sadness for our country. Wake up America.”

A jury on Thursday convicted David DePape of federal crimes for breaking into Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and hitting her husband with a hammer in an attack that raised fears of political violence ahead of the midterm elections from 2022.

The trial lasted four days and the jury reached its decision after approximately eight hours of deliberation. Mr. DePape, 43, faces a possible life sentence.

His lawyers did not dispute the evidence against him, including police body camera footage of the attack on Paul Pelosi, 83, as well as Mr. DePape’s own admissions to police and on the witness stand. But they argued to the jury that DePape’s beating of Pelosi while he was on a mission to kidnap his wife — then Speaker of the House of Representatives and second in line to the presidency — did not amount to federal crimes.

They said Mr. DePape acted not because of Ms. Pelosi’s official duties as a member of Congress — a mandatory part of the charges against him — but rather as part of a larger plot, fueled by online conspiracy theories, to target a cabal of so-called liberal elites he saw as a threat to American freedom.

If the case was never, in the words of one of Mr. DePape’s lawyers, a “whodunit,” the trial exposed the ugliness of American politics in an era of extreme polarization.

Mr. DePape, a lonely figure who once lived under a tree in a park in Berkeley, California, became obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and QAnon, seemingly embracing the dehumanizing language about Mrs. Pelosi that conservative pundits and politicians have used for years.

In the aftermath of the attack, Republican commentators and elected officials promoted more conspiracy theories about the assault, raising questions about male prostitution or simply suggesting that the official accounts of the attack were not the whole story. And some on the right scoff at the beating of an octogenarian in his own home.

At a campaign rally Saturday in New Hampshire, for example, former President J. Donald Trump called Mrs Pelosi was a “crazy lunatic” to a crowd of supporters, adding: “What the hell was wrong with her husband? Let’s not ask.”

In a statement released shortly after the verdict was read in court, a spokesperson for Mrs. Pelosi said: “The Pelosi family is very proud of their father, who showed extraordinary calm and courage on the night of the attack a year ago and on the night of the attack. courtroom this week. Fortunately, Mr. Pelosi continues to make progress in his recovery.”

The attack, in the early morning hours of October 28, 2022, began when Mr. DePape burst through a back door of the Pelosi residence in San Francisco’s upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood. Inside, he discovered Mr. Pelosi asleep in his third-floor bedroom.

Standing in the bedroom doorway with a hammer in one hand and zip ties in the other, the assailant demanded to see Mrs. Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time.

“I realized I was in serious danger,” Pelosi told the jury Monday in his first public comments on the attack. He added: “I tried to stay as calm as possible.”

Mr. Pelosi told how, with his life in danger, he was able to secretly call 911 from his bathroom and make it clear that he was in danger without annoying Mr. DePape. When Mr. DePape said he would wait for Mrs. Pelosi to return to California but that he was tired and needed to sleep, Mr. Pelosi suggested he go downstairs, hoping the police were on their way.

“Why don’t we go down,” Mr. Pelosi recalled telling Mr. DePape. “And you can tie me up there and we can go to sleep.”

Shortly afterwards, police arrived to find Mr. DePape and Mr. Pelosi in the foyer, each with a hand on the gavel. When the officers demanded they drop the gun, Mr. DePape grabbed it, lunged at Mr. Pelosi and hit him in the head. Prosecutors showed a photo in court that showed Mr. Pelosi lying on the ground as a pool of blood collected around him.

When lawyers began their case on Tuesday, the first witness they called was Mr. DePape himself.

Mr. DePape said the catalyst for his online radicalization was Gamergate, an online campaign that began in 2014 as a backlash against female critics of the video game industry. He said he came to Gamergate years later while living in a one-bedroom apartment next to a garage in Richmond, California, with a folding futon, a large chair for playing video games and no bathroom.

Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser, once tried to leverage the Gamergate community to connect cadres of isolated, mostly white men to Trump’s political movement. He once told Bloomberg Businessweek, “They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then they get interested in politics and Trump.”

Mr. DePape said Gamergate made him aware of the “truth,” and from there he became a supporter of Mr. Trump and a skeptic of the mainstream media. And he came to believe in an elaborate conspiracy theory that liberal elites were promoting pedophilia and spreading lies about Mr. Trump.

He referred to “they” when referring to the conspiracy theory. When asked who “they” were, he replied: “The easiest answer is Wall Street, the super rich and whoever, but there is reason to believe this goes back to the Jesuits and the Vatican and secret societies and the like .’

Getting to the heart of their strategy, defense lawyers repeatedly asked Mr. DePape, who sat in tears on the stand and apologized for hurting Mr. Pelosi, whether he had sought out Ms. Pelosi because of her official duties in Congress – such as whether she supported the administration. the Green New Deal or had said something during a speech or during a meeting with her constituents. No, he said every time.

He targeted Ms. Pelosi, he said, because of her role as leader of Democrats and her media appearances in which she spread “lies” about Mr. Trump. Mr. DePape said he planned to wear an inflatable unicorn costume — he brought two costumes with him the night of the attack — as he questioned Ms. Pelosi.

When he arrived at the Pelosi residence, Mr. DePape was carrying, among other things, a sleeping bag and two backpacks filled with zip-locks, a Nintendo Switch, body cameras, goji berries and $9,126 in cash — items he said he needed for his planned activities. travel across the country to track down the other targets on his list.

Among them, he said on the witness stand, were Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California; the actor Tom Hanks; Hunter Biden, the president’s son; and George Soros, the hedge fund billionaire.

“He didn’t go to that house because of anything she did as speaker of the House of Representatives,” Angela Chuang, a federal public defender and one of Mr. DePape’s lawyers, told the jury in her closing argument. “He went there to root out the corruption of the ruling class.”

As for Mr. Pelosi, Mr. DePape said he never intended to hurt him, and that the two had developed a “relationship” after the burglary and while Mr. DePape stood in his bedroom swinging a hammer.

“He was a very amiable gentleman,” Mr. DePape said. “And I just squeezed his shoulder, just to reassure him.”

Mr. DePape is also being tried in state court for several crimes, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. The next hearing in that case is scheduled for November 29. But now that Mr. DePape has been convicted in federal court, prosecutors may settle or drop their case altogether, especially if Mr. DePape receives a lengthy prison sentence.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement Thursday: “We will consult with federal prosecutors and the victim in this case as we determine our next steps.”

It was a typically quiet evening for Paul Pelosi while his wife was out of town: out to dinner, home around 10 p.m., watching a little TV, then lights out at midnight. About two hours later, he was awakened by an intruder bursting into his third-floor bedroom.

“The door opened and a very large man walked in with a hammer in one hand and a pair of ties in the other,” Pelosi, 83, told a jury Monday. “And he said, ‘Where’s Nancy?'”

In a San Francisco courtroom, Mr. Pelosi, the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, spoke publicly for the first time about the brutal attack last year that left him hospitalized for days with a cracked skull. The testimony came during the federal trial of David DePape, who was accused of crushing Mr. Pelosi while he sought out Ms. Pelosi, who was the Speaker of the House of Representatives and in Washington at the time.

Mr. DePape told police last year that he was on a mission to capture Ms. Pelosi, interrogate her and possibly “break her kneecaps.” He also said he saw Ms. Pelosi as a leader of a cabal of liberal elites bent on taking away people’s freedoms, echoing the language right-wing pundits and elected officials have used to describe her for years.

“She was the leader of the pack and he had to take her out,” Mr. Pelosi said the intruder told him.

Sitting across the room from the man accused of attacking him with a hammer, Mr. Pelosi calmly and collectedly recounted the incident. But his voice trembled as he spoke of the lingering trauma.

“I did my very best not to relive this,” Mr. Pelosi said on the witness stand. He said he did not listen to the 911 call that night, nor did he watch the videos presented as evidence. Aside from his interviews with prosecutors, “I have not discussed this incident with anyone,” he said, adding that the episode was “so traumatic for my family.”

In his testimony, Mr. Pelosi, a venture capitalist and real estate investor, recounted the chronology of those early morning hours of October 28, 2022 – from the moment an intruder burst into his bedroom; on his surreptitious call to 911 from his bathroom, speaking in code so as not to annoy the man who threatened him; until he opened the door for the police, just before he said Mr. DePape hit him with the hammer.

Laura Vartain Horn, prosecuting, asked him what he remembered after being knocked down.

“Wake up in a pool of blood,” Mr. Pelosi responded.

Mr. DePape’s personal history and alleged crimes are, for many, a reflection of America’s polarized age and the disinformation that fueled it: He was a lonely man seemingly radicalized by the dark corners of the Internet, which not only peddled conspiracy theories as QAnon and Pizzagate embraced the “Democratic elite,” but also acted violently towards them.

Mr. DePape’s lawyers, who are set to present their case on Tuesday, have said they will not contest the evidence against him, much of which has already been released to the public during the legal process. The attack was captured on police body cameras, and Mr. DePape, 43, admitted to the crimes in an interview with police and a phone call to a local reporter in jail.

Mr. DePape is charged with two 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.

His lawyers have drawn up a defense strategy based on limited legal grounds. In her opening statement on Thursday, Jodi Linker, a federal public defender, argued that federal charges should not apply because of Mr. DePape’s motivation for carrying out the attack. She said he was not acting because of Ms. Pelosi’s official duties as a member of Congress, but rather focused on a larger conspiracy in which he planned to use Ms. Pelosi to lure other liberal figures he believed were responsible for pedophilia, corruption and destruction. freedom in America.

Mr. DePape told police after his arrest that he had a list of other targets, including the actor Tom Hanks; the billionaire George Soros; Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California; and Adam Schiff, the Democratic congressman from California who rose to prominence for his starring role in the first impeachment of former President Donald J. Trump.

Shortly after the attack last year, Mrs. Pelosi announced she was stepping down from Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives. She later said she would seek re-election next year.

Mr. DePape also faces multiple felony charges in state court, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. The next hearing in that case is scheduled for Nov. 29, when a judge is expected to set a trial date.

Before calling Mr. Pelosi as the day’s final witness, the administration called several law enforcement officials to testify, including a Capitol Police supervisor who was a longtime member of Ms. Pelosi’s security detail. An executive at Spokeo, a company that maintains a subscription database of information on individuals, also testified that Mr. DePape had searched for Ms. Pelosi’s San Francisco address in the days before the attack.

Mr. Pelosi said he was still undergoing physical therapy and in pain from the attack. For most of the past year he has worn hats and caps everywhere he goes. His hair has only just grown back, but he still has bumps on his head from being beaten. “When I move my fingers, I can still feel them,” he said.

Doctors have told him to be careful with light and noise, and to avoid the news. If he has to watch television, they told him to stick to sports.

“I tried to put it out of my mind,” he told the jury.

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.

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.