The suspect who broke into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s house last weekend and attacked her husband Paul with a hammer intended to kidnap Pelosi, federal prosecutors said.
San Francisco District Attorney Jenkins charged 42-year-old David Depape on Monday (Oct. 31) with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping, Agence France-Presse and Reuters reported. The prosecutor said it was a politically motivated attack.
According to a federal criminal complaint filed on the same day, DePape, who broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home in the early morning of the 28th, told police that he was going to kidnap Pelosi and that if Pelosi “lied” when he was questioned, he would fight Broken Pelosi’s kneecap.
The Justice Department said DePape was carrying tape, rope, cable ties and other materials, and when he found only Paul at home, he struck Paul in the head with a hammer.
Federal authorities charged DePape on Wednesday with trying to kidnap a U.S. government official and assault his family because of his work.
Hours later, San Francisco District Attorney Jenkins announced a slew of new state charges against DePape, including attempted murder, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, wrongful imprisonment of an elder and threatening a person. Public officials and their families.
Jenkins said that if DePape is convicted on state charges, he faces 13 years in prison to a maximum of life in prison.
The court has set a hearing date for November 1.
Pelosi issued a statement Monday saying her husband’s condition was “stable and progressing” and “it will be a long recovery process.”
Pelosi, 82, one of the most powerful political figures in the United States, is the first female speaker of the House of Representatives in U.S. history and will be elected for the fourth time in 2021. Ranked second in the U.S. presidential succession order, behind Vice President Harris.
Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, also an 82-year-old real estate and venture capital executive, remains in hospital after an attack last weekend left him with a fractured skull and a serious injury to his right arm.