The trial against David DePape, who was accused of attacking Paul Pelosi at his home in San Francisco, has begun. The 43-year-old man pleaded not guilty and will remain in the custody of police authorities.
DePape is accused of two federal crimes: attempted kidnapping of a federal official (up to 20 years in prison) and assault on an immediate family member of the official in retaliation for their work (30 years in prison). His is accused of breaking into the Pelosi home and attacking the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head with a hammer.
The Washington Post collected the statements of one of DePape's lawyers, Jodi Linker, who admitted her client committed a serious criminal assault, stating that it was "a horrible and shocking act of violence." However, she denied that the attack had anything to do with Nancy Pelosi's work in Congress.
The victim, who suffered various injuries and a skull fracture from the attack, is expected to testify at trial.
A ‘bizarre, misguided plan’
The assistant federal prosecutor, Laura Vartain Horn, told the jury that based on the evidence, she believes DePape's attack was an action in retaliation for Pelosi’s work in Congress and assured that the defendant held an unfavorable opinion of the Democrat, believing she was an “evil” and “a liar”:
It was a violent plan — a plan to kidnap Nancy Pelosi to hold her hostage, to break her kneecaps, to teach her a lesson.
However, Linker declared that the trial "is not a whodunit" and assured that DePape wanted to execute a "bizarre, misguided plan" to prevent a powerful elite from attacking minors. In addition, she claimed that "He did something wrong, something horrible, but he did not commit these two federal charges ...What matters is what brought David to that house — what David believed and what he intended."
When this trial concludes, DePape will face another open statewide case on charges including: "attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary, false imprisonment and threatening serious bodily harm to a public official." These were filed by the San Francisco district attorney, according to The Washington Post.
