Paul Pelosi recounted publicly for the first time Monday the shock he felt last year as he awoke to a man armed with a hammer in the San Francisco home he shares with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, telling jurors how he later came to in a pool of blood after he was violently struck in the head.
“It was a tremendous shock to recognize that somebody had broken into the house and looking at him and looking at, you know, the hammer and the ties, I recognized that I was in serious danger. So I tried to stay as calm as possible,” Pelosi, 83, testified in a California courtroom during the federal trial of David DePape, which began last week.
DePape has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of assault on the immediate family member of a federal official and the attempted kidnapping of a federal official in connection with the attack. He faces a maximum of 30 years and 20 years, respectively, if found guilty on the charges.
Prosecutors say DePape broke into the Pelosis’ home in the early hours of October 28, 2022, with “a violent plan to kidnap Nancy Pelosi, to hold her hostage, to break her kneecaps, to teach her a lesson.” He struck Paul Pelosi with a hammer, they argued, in “a quick moment of despair” when police arrived.
Paul Pelosi told the jury Monday that a man, later identified by police as DePape, had asked where his wife was. “She’s not here. She’s in Washington,” he recalled answering.
Pelosi had placed a 911 call from a cell phone charging in the bathroom of his home, but said Monday that he was unable to fully convey the seriousness of the situation at the time out of fear for his life. He can be heard in audio released from that call, appearing to attempt to tell the dispatcher he was in danger, as DePape listened in.
He led DePape to the lower level of his home, Paul Pelosi said, thinking that police could quicker…
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