A ton of news has dropped since this attack, so I can see how the public forgot the Paul Pelosi story. It was the weirdest break-in of all time, which spawned a flurry of conspiracy theories about whether Mr. Pelosi was engaging in a gay tryst with David DePape. DePape broke into the Pelosi home in San Francisco and held Mr. Pelosi hostage, though he was able to call emergency services. DePape then struck him with a hammer. The incident occurred in October of 2022, and now, DePape has been found guilty of all charges stemming from assaulting Mr. Pelosi, which could land him behind bars for decades (via Politico):
A jury has convicted the man charged with breaking into the home of Rep. Nancy Pelosi and striking her 83-year-old husband in the head with a hammer in an act of political violence fueled by hard-right delusions.
David DePape, a Canadian citizen who was living in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time of the attack, was found guilty by a jury in federal court Thursday of assault and kidnapping charges that could send him to prison for decades.
“This guilty verdict on all counts sends a clear message that regardless of what your beliefs are, what you cannot do is physically attack a member of Congress or their immediate family for their performance in their job,” Ismail Ramsey, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, said in a news conference following the verdict.
Jurors convicted DePape after deliberating about six hours in a trial that began Nov. 9 in downtown San Francisco, about two miles from the Pelosi home where the attack occurred in October 2022.
DePape, who at times sobbed during his testimony, sat hunched forward and stared at the defense table as the verdict was announced but showed no obvious emotion.
[…]
DePape admitted — to investigators, in a jailhouse interview and in rambling court testimony — to breaking into the home and striking Paul Pelosi in the head with a hammer as part of a convoluted plot to detain and interrogate the former House speaker as leverage against other prominent figures he believed were engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy and corruption.
[…]
The kidnapping charge carries a 20-year prison sentence and the assault has a 30-year term. A hearing for his sentencing was not immediately scheduled.
This case wasn’t hard; he admitted to striking Pelosi and wanting to break the former House speaker’s kneecaps. When this kidnapping plot went awry, Mrs. Pelosi was safe in Washington, DC.
What stoked the fire for the conspiracy theories was the refusal to release the security camera and police bodycam footage, which led to media outlets filing lawsuits. You can see how this lack of transparency, plus the conflicting reports—it was initially reported that DePape was wearing just his underwear and no forced entry was found—could lead to a gay lover’s quarrel narrative. Paul Pelosi required brain surgery following the assault but recovered. The bodycam footage was also eventually released:
🚨VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED🚨
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 27, 2023
Here’s the Paul Pelosi body cam footage. pic.twitter.com/Zh4djDOPIt
Yet, it’s par for the course for Politico to harp on the alleged right-wing hysterics from DePape when this man has no coherent political ideology. He’s mentally ill, bought a birdhouse for a “fairy” he communicated with, and his residence was littered with BLM and LGBT paraphernalia. DePape’s son described his father as a progressive Green Party supporter.
The man is crazy; can we all agree on that point?
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