Man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband found guilty of kidnapping

A man sentenced to 30 years in a federal prison for attacking the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was found guilty Friday of aggravated kidnapping, a conviction that carries a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

A jury in San Francisco also found David DePape guilty of first-degree burglary, false imprisonment of an elderly person, threatening a family member of a public official and deterring a witness.

The convictions on the additional charges come weeks after a federal judge sentenced DePape for the 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi.

“Speaker Pelosi and her family continue to be impressed by her father’s courage, which was again evident on the witness stand in this trial, just as it was when he saved his own life the night of the attack,” Ms. Pelosi’s office wrote in an emailed statement on Friday.

“For nearly 20 grueling months, Mr. Pelosi has demonstrated extraordinary courage and fortitude every day of his recovery.”

DePape’s public defender, Adam Lipson, said he was disappointed with the verdict and plans to appeal, calling prosecutors’ decision to file kidnapping for ransom charges “vindictive.”

“It’s really unfortunate that the charges were brought in this way. It was a textbook kind of vindictive prosecution,” Lipson said. “As soon as they knew the attempted murder charge was going to be dropped, they added that charge.”

Mr. Lipson had previously argued that the state’s proceedings following the federal conviction amounted to double jeopardy.

Even though the charges are not the same, both cases involve the same crime, he told the judge.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman agreed, dismissing the state’s charges of attempted murder, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. Another judge upheld the decision on appeal.

Mr Lipson said the ruling meant that after serving 30 years in a federal prison, DePape would be transferred to California “to spend the rest of his life in a California prison.”

A federal jury previously found DePape guilty of assaulting a family member of a federal official and attempting to kidnap a federal official.

On May 28, he was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison in an unusual re-conviction due to a miscarriage of justice.

In his closing argument, Mr. Lipson focused on telling the jury that the prosecution had failed to prove that DePape kidnapped Paul Pelosi, then 82, with the intent to “extort money or anything of value from another person,” a key part of the charge.

Assistant District Attorney Phoebe Maffei told the jury in her closing argument that DePape planned to record a video of his questioning of Nancy Pelosi.

Mr Lipson argued that the video did not exist and if it did, it had no value.

“When he broke into the Pelosi’s house, his intention was to confront and possibly injure and attack Nancy Pelosi. That was his intention at the time, this has nothing to do with Mr. Pelosi,” he said.

In her response, Ms. Maffei pointed out that DePape told an investigator and testified in federal court that he planned to obtain a video of Nancy Pelosi in which he believed she confessed to crimes and post it on the Internet.

“There is inherent value in a video of the Speaker of the House confessing to crimes in her own home,” Ms. Maffei said.

The attack on Paul Pelosi was captured on police bodycam video just days before the 2022 midterm elections and shocked the political world.

He suffered two head injuries, including a skull fracture that was treated with plates and screws and will remain with him for the rest of his life. His right arm and hand were also injured.

DePape admitted during his testimony in federal court that he planned to take Nancy Pelosi hostage, record his interrogation and “break her kneecaps” if she did not admit to the lies he said she told about “Russiagate,” a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In his closing argument, Mr Lipson told the jury that before the attack, DePape had led an isolated, lonely life and had “fallen down the rabbit hole of propaganda and conspiracy theories.”