What Paul Pelosi’s Alleged Attacker Has Already Admitted

Following last week’s attack on Paul Pelosi — husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — both the Department of Justice and the State of California have moved to prosecute the alleged attacker, David Wayne DePape, who was arrested at the scene and who has pleaded not guilty to state charges.

Amid conflicting early reports, conspiracy theories from the far-right and smears against the Pelosi family, it’s easy to overlook the fact that the alleged attacker already confessed to police, according to court filings in the state and federal cases against him.

What he’s admitted to, these filings show, lay to rest wild conjecture that has accompanied the case.

DePape admitted to breaking into the Pelosi residence.

DePape said he “broke into the house through a glass door,” according to the FBI affidavit. He also admitted that breaking in was “a difficult task that required the use of a hammer.” 

DePape wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, talk to her and break her kneecaps if she lied to him.

DePape confessed he planned to hold Pelosi hostage in an interview after his arrest. He explained he wanted to talk to her and that if the House Speaker told him the “truth” he would have let her go. But if she “lied” to him, he would have broken her kneecaps. 

DePape also sees Pelosi as the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party, he said during the police interview. By breaking Pelosi’s kneecaps he said he would make an example out of her and show other members of Congress that there are consequences to their actions.

DePape knew Paul Pelosi called 9-1-1 but didn’t leave because “he was fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender.” 

DePape assumed “there was no way the police were going to forget about the phone call” and he guessed officers would be responding to the 9-1-1 call shortly, he said in an interview with law enforcement after his arrest. However, he chose to stay in the residence anyway “because, much like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender,” he said.

DePape told law enforcement he “swung the hammer towards” Paul Pelosi.

When police arrived at the scene and knocked on the door, Paul Pelosi opened the door and gripped the hammer DePape was holding, according to the criminal complaint. DaPape later confessed that he didn’t have any intention of surrendering and he wanted to “go ‘through’ Pelosi” even after police arrived. So, he “pulled the hammer away” from Paul Pelosi and “swung the hammer towards” the House Speaker’s husband.

“Hurting him was not my goal,” he told the officers and medics at the crime scene, according to the memorandum filed by the State of California. “I told him before I attacked him, that he’s escalating things, and I will go through him if I have to.”

DePape admitted the Speaker of the House was not his only target.

When asked if had other plans to commit violence, DePape “named several targets, including a local professor, several prominent state and federal politicians,and relatives of those state and federal politicians,” according to the memorandum filed by the State of California. 

“I’m sick of the insane fucking level of lies coming out of Washington, D.C.,” he told the officers and medics at the crime scene. “I’m not going to stand here and do nothing even if it costs me my life.”