The man who attacked Pelosi’s husband is sentenced to 30 years in prison

The man who broke into the home of former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in 2022 and attacked her husband with a hammer was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In a politically motivated attack, David DePape He broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home early in the morning on October 28, 2022, a week before the congressional elections. At that time, the then speaker of the House of Representatives was in Washington.

The assailant, a Canadian citizen who lives illegally in the United States and who according to prosecutors was carried away by far-right conspiracy theories known as QAnon, acknowledged in trial testimony that his intention was to take Pelosi hostage.

DePape, 44, confronted Pelosi’s husband, Paul, 82, and hit him in the head with a hammer before being subdued by police, who had been called to the scene. In November, a jury found him guilty of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault of an immediate family member of one.

The victim suffered skull fractures and other injuries that continue to affect him, he described in a letter to the judge before Friday’s sentencing. In addition to dizziness and a metal plate in his head, he said he has balance problems and permanent nerve damage in his left hand.

In a separate letter, Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to lead the House of Representatives, urged the judge to impose a “very long” punishment against DePape, whose lawyer had asked for a 14-year sentence, alleging that he had become “unbalanced” in the years before the attack due, in part, to an abusive relationship.

The Democratic politician noted that DePape reportedly yelled “Where’s Nancy?” when entering her home, which some intruders shouted at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when a mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the building trying to overturn the election of Joe Biden.

In court papers, the Justice Department argued that although he had not been convicted of a terrorism crime, his crimes fit the definition because he sought to affect the government through “intimidation or coercion.” Prosecutors, who had asked for 40 years of jail, they said DePape had shown no remorse for his actions.

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