Attempted Kidnapping of Nancy Pelosi & Assault of Paul Pelosi

ICYMI: 3 days ago Paul Pelosi, 82, husband of Nancy Pelosi, US Speaker of the House of Congress, was attacked in their California home by an assailant. Paul Pelosi was struck with a hammer and underwent surgery for skull and hand fractures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Paul_Pelosi

The attack was swept up in numerous sources of misinformation, noise, and conspiracy theories (gawker actually had a good writeup this morning breaking down the mainstream bunk and why it was bunk: https://gizmodo.com/conspiracy-theories-paul-nancy-pelosi-hammers-underwear-1849720475).

With that out of the way, here we are as things slow down a bit and the facts are clearer. The DOJ has charged David Wayne DePape, 42 with attempted kidnapping and assault. The criminal complaint here as PDF: https://docs-cdn-prod.news-engineering.aws.wapo.pub/publish_document/5cb80990-a986-4cc4-b7ff-6e5d2450fc0f/published/5cb80990-a986-4cc4-b7ff-6e5d2450fc0f.pdf

Here are just the straight facts on file:

• DEPAPE was prepared to detain and injure Speaker Pelosi when he entered the Pelosi residence in the early morning of October 28, 2022. DEPAPE had zip ties, tape, rope, and at least one hammer with him that morning. The evidence further shows that DEPAPE assaulted Mr. Pelosi with DEPAPE’s own hammer. 
• On October 28, 2022, at 2:23 a.m., San Francisco Dispatch received a 9-1-1 call from Paul Pelosi (“Pelosi”) located at the Pelosi residence in San Francisco, California. Pelosi stated words to the effect of there is a male in the home and that the male is going to wait for Pelosi’s wife. Pelosi further conveyed that he does not know who the male is. The male said his name is David. 
• At 2:31 a.m., San Francisco Police Department (“SFPD”) Officer Colby Wilmes responded to the Pelosi residence, California and knocked on the front door. When the door was opened, Pelosi and DEPAPE were both holding a hammer with one hand and DEPAPE had his other hand holding onto Pelosi’s forearm. Pelosi greeted the officers. The officers asked them what was going on. DEPAPE responded that everything was good. Officers then asked Pelosi and DEPAPE to drop the hammer. 
• DEPAPE pulled the hammer from Pelosi’s hand and swung the hammer, striking Pelosi in the head. Officers immediately went inside and were able to restrain DEPAPE. While officers were restraining DEPAPE, Pelosi appeared to be unconscious on the ground. Officers removed a cell phone, cash, clipper cards, and an unidentified card from DEPAPE’s right shorts pocket. DEPAPE provided officers his first and last name. After officers asked DEPAPE if he had an ID on him, DEPAPE said it might be in his backpack on the back porch and later stated his backpack was near the broken glass. When officers removed DEPAPE from Pelosi’s residence, police body worn camera footage showed a glass door that appeared to be laminated glass, broken near the door handle. San Francisco Police Department recovered zip ties in Pelosi’s bedroom and in the hallway near the front door of the Pelosi residence. In addition, law enforcement searched DEPAPE’s backpack at the Pelosi residence, and they found, among other things, a roll of tape, white rope, one hammer, one pair of rubber and cloth gloves, and a journal. 
• SFPD Officer Colby Wilmes was able to interview a witness, Witness 1, who saw an individual in all black, carrying a large black bag on his back, walking near the Pelosi residence where Witness | was parked. Witness 1 was working private security at an address nearby. Witness | then heard what sounded like banging on either a door or car and then heard the sirens within a minute or two.  
• Pelosi was interviewed by SFPD Officer Ariane Starks in the ambulance during transport to San Francisco General Hospital. Pelosi stated he had never seen DEPAPE before. Pelosi was asleep when DEPAPE came into Pelosi’s bedroom and stated he wanted to talk to “Nancy.”! When Pelosi told him that Nancy was not there, DEPAPE stated that he would sit and wait. Pelosi stated that his wife would not be home for several days and then DEPAPE reiterated that he would wait. Pelosi was able to go into the bathroom which is when he was able to call 9- 1-1. Pelosi stated that when the officers arrived, that was when DEPAPE struck him with the hammer. 
• In a subsequent interview with law enforcement officers on October 30, 2022, Paul Pelosi stated that DEPAPE had a hammer with him during the events described above at the Pelosi residence. Further, the hammer did not belong to the Pelosi family. 
• In a Mirandized and recorded interview of DEPAPE by San Francisco Police Department Officers, DEPAPE provided the following information:
• a. DEPAPE stated that he was going to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her. If Nancy were to tell DEPAPE the “truth,” he would let her go, and if she “lied,” he was going to break “her kneecaps.” DEPAPE was certain that Nancy would not have told the “truth.” In the course of the interview, DEPAPE articulated he viewed Nancy as the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party. DEPAPE also later explained that by breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other Members of Congress there were consequences to actions. DEPAPE also explained generally that he wanted to use Nancy to lure another individual to DEPAPE.
• b. DEPAPE stated that he broke into the house through a glass door, which was a difficult task that required the use of a hammer. DEPAPE stated that Pelosi was in bed and appeared surprised by DEPAPE. DEPAPE told Pelosi to wake up. DEPAPE told Pelosi that he was looking for Nancy. Pelosi responded that she was not present. Pelosi asked how they could resolve the situation, and what DEPAPE wanted to do. DEPAPE stated he wanted to tie Pelosi up so that DEPAPE could go to sleep as he was tired from having had to carry a backpack to the Pelosi residence. Around this time, according to DEPAPE, DEPAPE started taking out twist ties from his pocket so that he could restrain Pelosi. Pelosi moved towards another part of the house, but DEPAPE stopped him and together they went back into the bedroom. 
• c. While talking with each other, Pelosi went into a bathroom, where Pelosi grabbed a phone to call 9-1-1. DEPAPE stated he felt like Pelosi’s actions compelled him to respond. 
• d. DEPAPE remembered thinking that there was no way the police were going to forget about the phone call. DEPAPE explained that he did not leave after Pelosi’s call to 9-1-1 because, much like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender. DEPAPE reiterated this sentiment elsewhere in the interview. 
• e. DEPAPE stated that they went downstairs to the front door. The police arrived and knocked on the door, and Pelosi ran over and opened it. Pelosi grabbed onto DEPAPE’s hammer, which was in DEPAPE’s hand. At this point in the interview, DEPAPE repeated that DEPAPE did not plan to surrender and that he would go “through” Pelosi. 
• f. DEPAPE stated that he pulled the hammer away from Pelosi and swung the hammer towards Pelosi. DEPAPE explained that Pelosi’s actions resulted in elosi “taking the punishment instead.” 
• On October 29, 2022, law enforcement determined that DEPAPE lived in the garage of a residence on Shasta Street in Richmond, California, by interviewing the owner of the premises who confirmed that DEPAPE has resided in the garage for approximately two years. 
• On October 29, 2022, law enforcement searched the garage at the Shasta Street residence pursuant to a federal search warrant. Among other things, agents seized two hammers, a sword, and a pair of rubber and cloth gloves. The agents also found evidence that DEPAPE lived in the garage, including DMV paperwork, IRS letters, and Paypal credit cards. 

Politicians and pundits have been taking turns condemning each other for being so happy with their charged rhetoric on any other day. There's been a broad effort to throw water on the notion that MAGA/far-right demagoguery helped incite this person to commit the attack. In the italicized point above I think the assailant makes it clear, in his own mirandized interview, that there are strong correlations potentially present there. All fronts have condemned the violent attack, even DJT, but not without trying to spin it as one political moral or another - for toning down the temperature of rhetoric, for having safer communities, tougher policing, etc.