The Man Who Beat Up Nancy Pelosi’s Husband Was Also Found Guilty of Kidnapping and Will Spend the Rest of His Life in Jail

SAN FRANCISCO — A man who attacked the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was given a 30-year federal prison term. On Friday, he was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping, which means he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the chance of parole.

David DePape was also found guilty of first-degree burglary, false imprisonment of an elder, threatening a family member of a public figure, and trying to stop a witness from testifying.

The extra charges against DePape were found guilty in the state hearing, just a few weeks after the 44-year-old was sentenced by a federal judge for the attack on Paul Pelosi in 2022.

Pelosi’s office said in an email statement Friday, “Speaker Pelosi and her family are still in awe of their Pop’s bravery, which shone through again on the witness stand in this trial just as it did when he saved his own life on the night of the attack.” “Every day during his recovery, Mr. Pelosi has shown incredible bravery and strength for almost 20 months.”

Adam Lipson, who is DePape’s public defender, said he was upset with the decision and will be appealing it. He said it was “venomous” that the prosecutors chose to charge someone with kidnapping for ransom.

“It’s really too bad that it was charged this way.” “The prosecution was pretty much a textbook case of vengeance,” Lipson said. “They added this charge as soon as they knew the attempted murder charge would be dropped.”

The DA for San Francisco, Brooke Jenkins, said at a news conference on Friday that all of the charges her office brought against DePape were based on the same proof.

“The jury was able to find that he was guilty,” she said. “There’s no need for any accusations of unfair prosecution.” Our only goal is to make sure that he is held responsible for all the illegal things that happened that night.

Before, Lipson said that the state trial is like being put on trial twice because he was already convicted in federal court. He told the judge that both cases are related to the same crime, even though the charges are different.

The judge in San Francisco’s Superior Court agreed and dropped the charges of attempted murder, elder abuse, and assault with a dangerous weapon. On appeal, the ruling was upheld by another judge.

Lipson said that because of the decision, DePape will spend the rest of his life in a California prison after serving 30 years in federal prison.

A federal jury had already found DePape guilty of attacking a family member of a federal official and trying to kidnap a federal official. He was given a new term of 30 years in federal prison on May 28 after a mistake in the first sentence led to an unusual resentencing hearing.

In his closing remarks, Lipson told the jury that the prosecutors had not shown that DePape kidnapped Paul Pelosi, who was 82 years old at the time, with the intent “to exact from another person money or something valuable,” which is a key part of the charge.

At the end of her case, Assistant District Attorney Phoebe Maffei told the jury that DePape had meant to record a video of his questioning of Nancy Pelosi.

Lipson said the video didn’t exist and wouldn’t have been useful even if it did.

“When he broke into the Pelosis’ house, he meant to confront Nancy Pelosi and possibly hurt or attack her.” He meant that at the time, and it had nothing to do with Mr. Pelosi, he said.

Maffei’s response said that DePape told a police officer and in federal court that he planned to get a video of Nancy Pelosi admitting to what he thought were crimes and post it online.

He said, “There is value in a video of the Speaker of the House admitting to crimes in her own home.”

The attack on Paul Pelosi on October 28, 2022, was caught on film by police body cameras just days before the midterm elections. The attack shocked people in politics. He hit his head twice and broke his brain. Plates and screws were used to fix it, and he will have them for the rest of his life. He hurt his right arm and hand too.

During his federal trial, DePape said he was going to “break her kneecaps” and hold Nancy Pelosi hostage while recording his questioning of her. He did this because he thought she would not admit to the lies he said she told about “Russiagate,” which is the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

After he finished his case, Lipson told the jury that DePape was living a lonely life and “went down the rabbit hole of propaganda and conspiracy theories” before the attack.

Judge said this week that DePape’s ex-partner was trying to mess with the jury, so she kicked her out of the public box and the second floor of the San Francisco courthouse.

One of the most well-known activists in the Bay Area, Gypsy Taub, passed out flyers outside of court on Monday and Tuesday with the address of a website she runs that supports conspiracy theories. The cards were also found in a bathroom for women close to the courtroom. The website address was written on the wall there in marker.

When DePape was sentenced in federal court, his lawyer, Angela Chaung, said that Taub, who has two kids with DePape, was the first person to introduce him to extreme beliefs.

Joanne Robinson, DePape’s twin sister, wrote a letter to the federal judge pleading for mercy. She said that Taub met DePape in Hawaii when she was 30 and pregnant and he was 20.

Robinson said Taub cut DePape off from his family and did “extreme psychological damage” to her brother.