Court Releases Video of Paul Pelosi Hammer Attack, Adding Chilling Details
WASHINGTON — A police officer arrives at the front door of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in San Francisco in the predawn hours of Oct. 28, 2022, to find her husband Paul Pelosi, 82, and an intruder standing together calmly but awkwardly in the foyer, each clutching opposite ends of a hammer.
Within seconds, the tense quiet is shattered: Ordered to drop the hammer, the intruder briefly scuffles with Mr. Pelosi before raising the tool above his head and lunging toward Mr. Pelosi. Panicked officers rush inside to try to subdue the assailant, as Mr. Pelosi lies motionless on his side making guttural sounds.
The graphic and harrowing scene unfolds in a roughly 90-second clip of police body camera footage released on Friday by a San Francisco court in the trial of David DePape, the man who has been charged with assaulting Mr. Pelosi. The speaker’s husband would go on to spend six days in a San Francisco hospital and undergo surgery for a skull fracture. It was an extraordinary depiction of a brutal act of political violence, which stemmed from an attempt to abduct Ms. Pelosi, who at the time was second in line to the presidency.
Together with surveillance video from the Capitol Police and other evidence released on Friday, it raised fresh questions about what is being done to protect public officials and their families against escalating threats. Its release also underscored the pernicious influence of misinformation in the United States, where some influential voices on the right had spread conspiracy theories about the attack on Mr. Pelosi.
