The Department of Justice is recommending a 40-year prison sentence for the man convicted of an October 2022 assault and attempted kidnapping after breaking into the home of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and attacking her husband.
David DePape broke into then-House Speaker Pelosi’s home and attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer in the early-morning hours of Oct. 28, 2022. DePape was searching for Nancy Pelosi, he told investigators later, but her husband was the only person inside their San Francisco home at the time, police said. Paul Pelosi, now 84, was hospitalized with a skull fracture and “serious injuries to his right arm and hands,” according to the speaker’s office.
At trial in November, DePape’s attorney, federal public defender Jodi Linker, argued that DePape’s actions were not in retaliation for Nancy Pelosi’s work as House speaker, but out of a QAnon-fueled desire to free children from the clutches of a corrupt elite class. Linker did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the sentencing recommendation.
The government disagreed, during the trial and in the 20-page sentencing memo filed Friday. Prosecutors cited federal law, which includes in the definition of terrorism an offense “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct.”
In statements after his arrest, the government notes, DePape, 43, of Richmond, Calif., said he intended to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and break her kneecaps to show other members of Congress that “lies and corruption had a price.”
Prosecutors argue in the memo that the court bears a responsibility to use DePape’s sentence to deter others from committing political violence. The attack at the Pelosi home comes after a dramatic increase in threats against lawmakers and government officials in recent years.
“At a time when extremism has led to attacks on public and elected officials, this case presents a moment to speak to others harboring ideologically motivated violent dreams and plans,” the prosecutors wrote.
A spokesperson for the Pelosi family did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the DOJ’s recommendation.
During the trial, DePape testified that he planned to wear a unicorn costume and film himself questioning Nancy Pelosi about statements concerning alleged Russian influence on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Instead, DePape encountered a sleeping Paul Pelosi, who testified in November that he was able to call the police after DePape allowed him to walk to the bathroom where his phone was charging. When San Francisco police arrived, body-camera footage shows DePape striking Pelosi on top of his head three times with the hammer before being tackled.
Pelosi said he woke up in a pool of blood and spent the next six days in a hospital recovering.
DePape’s federal sentencing is scheduled for May 17. He also faces state charges and has pleaded not guilty.
