The Justice Department is seeking 40 years in prison for DePape’s attack on Paul Pelosi during a kidnapping attempt

May 11 (UPI) – The Justice Department asked a federal judge to sentence David DePape to 40 years in prison for his gavel attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in San Francisco in 2022.

A jury found DePape guilty on Nov. 16 of one count of attempted kidnapping of a federal officer and one count of assault on an immediate family member of a federal officer.

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U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey asked the U.S. District Court of Northern California on Friday to sentence DePape to a maximum sentence of 20 years for the attack on Paul Pelosi and 30 years for his attempted kidnapping of Nancy Pelosi.

Ramsey asked the court to require DePape to serve a 10-year sentence for the assault conviction and to allow the remaining 10 years for that offense to be served concurrently with a 30-year sentence for the kidnapping conviction, for a total of 40 years .

DePape, 43, “was convicted of attempted kidnapping of then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and of violently assaulting her husband,” Ramsey says, “both in the performance of Speaker Pelosi’s official duties.”

Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House of Representatives when DePape illegally entered the Pelosi home in San Francisco around 2 a.m. on October 28, 2022, attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer and tried to kidnap Nancy.

“He planned to take Speaker Emerita Pelosi hostage and break her kneecaps if she lied to him,” Ramsey said. When Nancy Pelosi was not home, DePape attacked Paul Pelosi and threatened to “tie him up and ‘take him out.'”

Paul Pelosi, 84, suffered a fractured skull and was hospitalized for six days because of the attack, which was captured on police body cameras, ABC News reported.

Ramsey says DePape never took responsibility for the attack or showed any remorse.

Instead, on the same day that police bodycam footage was released to the public, DePape called KTVU-TV in Oakland while he was in jail awaiting trial.

He told the television station that the bodycam footage showed that “the tree of freedom is not dying. He was systematically and deliberately killed.”

“The people who are killing it have names and addresses,” DePape told the television station. “So I got their names and addresses so I could pay them a little visit and have a face-to-face conversation about their bad behavior.”

DePape said he was “so sorry I didn’t get more of it” and that he “should have been better prepared” to carry out his planned attacks, Ramsey says in the sentencing motion.

During the trial, DePape said his freedom of speech and press were violated by the ordered removal of his website.

Ramsey says DePape’s actions rise to the level of terrorism and he should be sentenced accordingly.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, DePape is a Canadian citizen who entered the United States as a temporary visitor in 2008 and was there illegally for more than six months.

DePape is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.