(Trends Wide) — The San Francisco Supreme Court published this Friday the video and audio recorded during the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the former speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, last year in California. The material includes footage from police body cameras showing the moment of the attack and the alleged attacker’s police interview in which he reportedly admitted that he wanted to take Nancy Pelosi hostage.
The audio and video files were released after a California court ruled that the district attorney’s office should release the material.
One of the videos shows body camera footage of officers arriving at Pelosi’s home on Oct. 28, 2022, when the attack occurred. The recording recorded the chaos of the moment in which the alleged attacker David DePape attacked Paul Pelosi.
In the video, both Paul Pelosi and DePape appear to have one hand on the hammer, and DePape is holding onto Pelosi’s arm as officers open the door.
“Drop the hammer,” says the agent.
“Uh, no,” DePape replies.
DePape then snatches the hammer from Pelosi’s hand and lunges at him. The officers ran into the house, subdued DePape and handcuffed him.
Trends Wide obtained the CD containing the files released by the court. In addition to the body camera footage, there are files on audio of DePape’s interviews with police, the 911 call Paul Pelosi made while DePape was at the home and surveillance video from the home, the court previously said.
In the audio of the 911 call, Pelosi appeared to be trying to subtly tell the operator that she was in danger as DePape listened. Trends Wide previously reported that Pelosi made the call when he walked into his bathroom, where he was charging his cell phone.
“There’s a gentleman here waiting for my wife, Nancy Pelosi, to come back. She’s waiting for me to come back, but she’s not coming back for days, so I guess we’ll just have to wait,” Pelosi told the operator.
“He thinks everything is fine. I have a problem, but he thinks everything is fine,” Pelosi said at another point in the 2-minute, 56-second recording.
The dispatcher asked Pelosi if she knew who the man was, and Pelosi said no. “He tells me to hang up the phone and do what he tells me,” Pelosi said.
“Who is David?” the operator asked.
“I don’t know,” Pelosi said.
DePape then intervened on the call. “I’m a friend of yours,” he said.
“He says he’s a friend. But like I said…” Pelosi said.
“But you don’t know who it is?” the dispatcher replied.
“No, ma’am,” Pelosi said.
In surveillance footage, DePape is seen breaking into Pelosi’s home. The scene was captured by a US Capitol Police security camera installed at Pelosi’s residence in San Francisco.
“I know exactly what I did”
In the audio recording of a San Francisco police officer’s interview with DePape following his arrest in October, DePape admitted to attacking Paul Pelosi and described his plans to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage when he broke into the woman’s home. couple in san francisco
“Yeah, I mean, I’m not trying to dodge, so I know exactly what I did,” DePape said toward the beginning of the 17-minute audio clip.
“Well, I was basically going to take her hostage and I was going to talk to her,” DePape said of Nancy Pelosi. “If she told the truth, she would set you free from her. If she lied, she would break his kneecaps.”
In the interview, DePape referenced conspiracy theories about the Democrats and Pelosi, complained about a Democratic “crime wave” and baselessly claimed that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats had spied on the campaign of former President Donald Trump.
“They are the criminals,” DePape said.
The agent probed DePape through his break-in at Pelosi’s home and his encounter with Paul Pelosi. When asked why he didn’t leave after Paul Pelosi called the police, DePape compared himself to the Founding Fathers’ fight against the British.
“When I left my house, I left to fight against tyranny. I didn’t come out to go give up,” she said.
DePape explained why he attacked Paul Pelosi after the police arrived, when they were both holding a hammer. “He thinks I’m just going to give up, and it’s like, I didn’t come there to give up,” DePape said. “And I told him that I would go through him. So basically I just threw it and hit it.”
DePape’s lawyers objected to the release of the video.
The videos were shown at a preliminary court hearing. The court’s decision to make the material public followed a motion by a coalition of news organizations, including Trends Wide, which argued that the circumstances surrounding the attack on the residence of the then House speaker called for transparency.
DePape’s lawyers opposed the release of the audio and video recordings, arguing that it would “irreparably harm” his right to a fair trial. DePape has pleaded not guilty to a series of state and federal crimes related to the attack, including assault and attempted murder.
Pelosi was violently attacked with a hammer at the house he and Nancy Pelosi own last year by an assailant who was looking for the then-Speaker of the House of Representatives, according to court documents. An event that ultimately prompted Nancy Pelosi’s decision to withdraw from the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives.
Court documents reveal that DePape woke Paul Pelosi shortly after 2 a.m., carrying a large hammer and several white zip ties, and asked him, “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?” He then threatened to tie up Paul Pelosi and prevented him from escaping in an elevator, according to the documents. DePape later told him, “I can finish you off.”
Following the attack, Paul Pelosi underwent surgery “to repair a fractured skull and serious injuries to his right arm and hands,” a spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. On Thursday, Nancy Pelosi said her husband’s recovery was “one day at a time.” Hours later, she assured that she had not heard the 911 call or heard DePape’s confession. She added that she hasn’t seen the video of DePape breaking in either. “I have absolutely no intention of seeing the deadly attack on my husband’s life. I will not be making any further statements on this case as it progresses, except to thank people again and update them on Paul’s progress. That will be the last thing I do.” I will say about the case”
— Kevin Flower, Jessica Dean and Taylor Romine contributed reporting.
