A federal judge on Friday sentenced David DePape to 30 years in prison, six months after a jury found him guilty of attempting to kidnap former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a bloody October 2022 attack. She was charged with beating her husband with a hammer.
Judge Jacqueline Scott Colley issued the ruling during a hearing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, censuring DePape in detail and saying she believed he continued to pose a danger to the public and “all Americans.” .
“He broke into the home of that public official, he broke into the private space of the home and violently assaulted the spouse of a public official,” Scott Corley said. “What this means and why this is so harmful to the country right now and to everyone in the future, is that when someone is considering now whether they want to go into public service, they have to consider not only am I willing to take that risk on myself, but am I willing to take that risk on my spouse , children, and grandchildren take risks?
DePape, wearing an orange prison track suit and ankle restraints, showed no outward reaction as the sentence was handed down.
The verdict concludes a nationally watched federal trial and raises chilling questions about the safety of public officials at a time when political extremism has intensified and online venues that fuel baseless and wild conspiracy theories proliferate.
In a letter to the judge read by their daughter Christina Pelosi in court, Nancy and Paul Pelosi both asked the judge to impose a lengthy prison sentence.
Nancy Pelosi said in the letter that her husband continues to suffer physical and mental pain from the attack, and that the violence has “had a devastating impact on three generations of our family.”
“It is therefore necessary to impose a lengthy prison sentence on the guilty party as punishment for the ongoing assaults and injuries suffered by Paul and as a deterrent to others considering violence against public officials,” the former spokesman wrote.
Paul Pelosi said his life has “been irrevocably changed” and that he has not fully recovered. He pointed to the blood stains at the front door entrance and the metal plate now embedded in his head as lasting reminders of the attack.
Federal prosecutors asked for a 40-year federal prison sentence and an aggravated terrorism charge, arguing that DePape had shown no remorse and that a harsh sentence would serve as a deterrent to other potential attackers motivated by ideological extremism.
“At a time when extremism leads to attacks on public officials and elected officials, this case provides a moment to speak to others who harbor ideologically motivated dreams and plans for violence,” the assistant U.S. attorney said. Helen Gilbert and Laura Vartain Horn wrote in the May 10 filing.
DePape faces a total of 50 years in federal prison: 30 years on the assault charge and 20 years on the attempted kidnapping charge. Scott Corley sentenced him to the maximum sentence on both counts, but ordered him to serve 30 years concurrently. He will receive credit for the approximately 18 months he spent in state custody.
DePape, 44, is accused of traveling from his Richmond residence to Pelosis’ Pacific Heights home in the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 2022, with a plan to hold the congressman hostage and to instigate minor accusations of a far-right conspiracy. She interrogated Democrats and other public figures on unfounded accusations of corruption, human trafficking and child abuse theorists.
DePape broke into the home, but instead of finding Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, she stumbled upon the bedroom where her husband was sleeping.
“The door opened and a large, heavy-set man came in with a hammer in one hand and some ties in the other,” Paul Pelosi testified. “He said, ‘Where’s Nancy?’ I think That’s what wakes me up.
He took out his cell phone and dialed 911. Prosecutors showed jurors police body camera video showing DePape beating Paul Pelosi, then 82, causing a fractured skull and serious injuries to his right arm and left hand.
State charges, which are still pending, accuse DePape of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary and threatening a public official and his family. The federal trial, by contrast, focuses on whether DePape’s actions that morning were indelibly tied to Speaker Pelosi’s official duties in Congress.
In presenting their case, federal prosecutors gave jurors a detailed review of DePape’s online purchasing and search history to demonstrate how he spent months preparing for the attack. Jurors heard portions of a police interview in which DePape said he considered Speaker Pelosi to be the “leader” of the Democratic Party and would “fight her” if she did not admit to corruption and other allegations of human trafficking and child trafficking. Break her knees” abuse.
DePap’s federal public defenders, Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang, urged the judge to consider a more lenient 14-year sentence, saying their client was convicted of an affair with his former lover and mother, Gypsy… Gypsy Taub suffered mental health issues and trauma from an abusive relationship.
Link and Zhuang have never denied that their clients committed acts of violence. Instead, they sought to convince the jury that DePape was motivated by elaborate conspiracy theories that were deeply held beliefs.
Citing letters of support from family and friends, they said the crimes were “completely out of character” for them.
“David was never violent in his youth and I am sorry that this happened,” DePape’s stepfather, Gene DePape, wrote in a statement to The Times. “I am very sorry that this happened. So sorry for Paul and Nancy.”
The attorneys’ plea for leniency was largely based on Taub’s influence. They maintain that Taub isolated DePap from his family and “immersed him in a world of extreme beliefs where reality was not reality.”
“His long-term relationship with his ex-partner Gypsy Taub caused immeasurable harm to his mental state and the meager family support network he had,” DePape’s attorneys wrote in a May 10 sentencing memorandum. .
In 2013, David DePape and Gypsy Taub married in a nude ceremony on the steps of San Francisco City Hall.
(San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Chong reiterated that argument at the sentencing hearing, saying DePap “was gaslighted, abused, and he was deliberately cut off from his family,” while Taub watched silently from the court bench.
In a recorded audio statement she sent to The Times this week, Taub dismissed her attorney’s accusations of abuse, saying: “I love David. I will always love him, no matter what he does or says.
“He was a very beautiful man. But he was very broken,” Taub said.
In an interview with The Times before DePape went on trial at his cluttered, eclectic Berkeley home, Taub espoused a number of conspiracy theories, using language nearly identical to what DePape shared in his testimony Same, including her belief that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were indeed an “inside job” and that the government had been corrupted by a satanic cult that preyed on children.
At the time, she insisted DePape had been falsely accused in Pelosi’s attack, describing him as an affable and gentle man. He was a very good man, she said, and she allowed DePap to continue living in her home and supported him financially even after she married another man.
In a video Taub shared more than a decade ago, she and DePap, naked, discuss his recent experience using psychedelics at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
“What is your dream for this planet?” Taub asked.
“I really want peace,” he replied.
“If the whole world could hear your voice now, what message would you want to send to the world?” she asked.
“God is love. God is loving,” he said. “And that’s just an illusion.”
