Jury finds man who attacked Paul Pelosi with hammer guilty in state trial

Another judge sentenced DePape to 30 years in prison last month after a federal court jury found him guilty in November of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on a close family member of a federal official. He will likely be deported to his native Canada after serving his sentence.

Through evidence and testimony, prosecutors alleged that DePape traveled from the East Bay to Pelosi’s San Francisco home after 2 a.m. on October 28, 2022, to question Nancy Pelosi about “Russiagate,” a debunked conspiracy theory related to the investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election.

Among the items DePape brought with him were a sledgehammer and GoPro cameras. Prosecutors believe these were intended to be used to mutilate the Speaker of the House on camera and to film a video for YouTube in which DePape is said to have been radicalized by videos containing conspiracy theories.

“He wanted to break her kneecaps so she could be pushed into Congress. So people would know there were consequences,” said Assistant District Attorney Phoebe Maffei in her closing argument on Tuesday. “This case is unusual.”

Prosecutors showed jurors security camera footage from the Pelosi home showing DePape smashing a glass patio door before fighting his way through a wooden door. They heard the 911 call Paul Pelosi made from his bedroom bathroom, where he calmly said that someone was at his home and that person wanted him to hang up.

Jurors also saw body camera footage showing two Capitol Police officers approaching the Pelosi’s front door in response to the 911 call and seeing Paul Pelosi standing next to DePape, both gripping a doorknob. When DePape was told to put down the gavel, he responded “nope” before slamming the gavel repeatedly into Pelosi, fracturing his skull.

DePape’s public defenders acknowledged that he was guilty of several of the crimes he was charged with, including first-degree burglary and tampering with a witness.

But San Francisco Public Defender Adam Lipson argued that the state failed to prove DePape guilty of kidnapping because there was nothing of value to be gained from the case of 82-year-old Paul Pelosi. Maffei countered that a video of the House speaker confessing to alleged crimes against the American people in her own home – part of the Russiagate conspiracy theory that motivated DePape – would be of great value.

DePape told investigators that his other targets included actor Tom Hanks, former Vice President Mike Pence, a San Francisco professor and his ex-wife Gypsy Taub, whom the judge excluded from the trial for allegedly trying to intimidate the jury.

Dorfman ordered Taub to stay off the second floor of the Palace of Justice, where the trial was taking place, after graffiti was discovered in a women’s restroom. That graffiti was the address of a website that Taub said he had set up to cast doubt on the state’s case against DePape.