The man who was arrested last year after allegedly attacking Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in the couple’s swanky San Francisco mansion last year, testified in court on Tuesday.
Suspect David DePape told the court he “planned to wear an inflatable unicorn costume and broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home to speak to her about Russian involvement in the 2016 election,” the New York Post reported.
DePape, who broke down in tears at times, testified that he planned to force the then-Speaker and other notable “targets” to admit they were corrupt and eventually get President Joe Biden to pardon all of them.
But instead, DePape testified that he found Paul at home instead of Nancy when he hit the 83-year-old with a hammer during the Oct. 28, 2022, break-in.
“He was never my target, and I’m sorry he got hurt,” DePape, 43, said of Paul Pelosi, in a San Francisco courtroom. “I reacted because my plan was ruined,” adding he sought to ask Biden to pardon his targets “so we can move forward as a country.”
He also testified that he used to listen to political podcasts that echoed right-wing conspiracies while playing video games for up to six hours per day.
The Post noted further:
On one of those podcasts, he heard conservative commentator James Lindsay talk about Bay Area scholar Dr. Gayle Rubin, a leading academic in feminist theory and queer studies.
“The takeaway I got is that she wants to turn our schools into pedophile molestation factories,” he said of Rubin, who has been referred to as “Target 1” in federal court documents.
Rubin also testified on Tuesday and said her writings were misconstrued to fit a narrative against the gay movement.
When asked by DePape’s defense attorney if she supported child abuse, Rubin replied, “Absolutely not.”
According to prosecutors, DePape’s other “targets” including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), billionaire George Soros, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, and actor Tom Hanks.
During his testimony Tuesday, Paul Pelosi recounted how he was able to dial 911 while DePape was preparing to tie him up.
“The door opened and a very large man came in with a hammer in one hand and some ties in the other and he said, ‘Where’s Nancy?’ And I think that woke me up,” Paul Pelosi testified. “I recognized I was in danger.”
He then said he managed to convince DePape to move from the upstairs bedroom to the first floor of the mansion, hoping that police were on their way. After he opened the door for police, bodycam footage shows that DePape grabbed a hammer and struck Paul with it.
“Pelosi sustained a fractured skull and suffered serious wounds to his right arm and hands in the attack and was hospitalized for several days for treatment,” The Post added.
In January, the San Francisco Superior Court released the bodycam video and audio of the attack on Paul after a judge gave the order to do so.
The video and audio were released around noon on Friday and included U.S. Capitol Police surveillance video and audio of the 911 call, Fox News reported.
Judge Stephen Murphy ruled that credentialed members of the media could access the materials and ordered the district attorney’s office to make them available.
Nancy Pelosi said at the time she was not certain that she wanted to see the video.
“I mean, it would be a very hard thing to see an assault on my husband’s life,” she said.
“It’s one day at a time,” she said of her husband’s recovery. “He’s made some progress, but it will be about three more months, I think, before he’s back to normal.”
