DOJ seeks 40 years for DePape’s attack on Paul Pelosi during attempted kidnapping

Federal prosecutors seek up to 40 years imprisonment for the Canadian citizen who broke into the home of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and attacked her husband Paul Pelosi with a hammer in October 2022. File photo by Ting Shen/UPI | License Photo

May 11 (UPI) — The Department of Justice asked a federal judge to sentence David DePape to 40 years in prison for his hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in San Francisco in 2022.

A jury on Nov. 16 found DePape guilty of one count of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and one count of assault on an immediate family member of a federal official.

U.S. attorney Ismail Ramsey on Friday asked the U.S. District Court of Northern California to sentence DePape to a maximum sentences of 20 years for the attack on Paul Pelosi and 30 years for his attempted kidnapping of Nancy Pelosi.

Ramsey asked the court to require DePape to serve 10 years for the assault conviction and allow the remaining 10 years for that offense to be served concurrently during a 30-year sentence for the kidnapping conviction for a total of 40 years.

DePape, 43, “was convicted of attempting to kidnap then-speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and of violently assaulting her husband,” Ramsey says, “both on account of the performance of Speaker Pelosi’s official duties.”

Nancy Pelosi was House speaker when DePape illegally entered the Pelosis’ San Francisco home at about 2 a.m. on Oct. 28, 2022, attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer and wanted to kidnap Nancy.

“He planned to hold Speaker Emerita Pelosi hostage and break her kneecaps if she lied to him,” Ramsey says. When Nancy Pelosi wasn’t home, DePape assaulted Paul Pelosi and threatened to “tie him up and ‘take him out.'”

Paul Pelosi, 84, suffered a skull fracture and was hospitalized for six days due to the attack that was recorded by police body cameras, ABC News reported.

Ramsey says DePape never accepted responsibility or showed remorse for the attack.

Instead, on the same day police body cam footage was made available to the public, DePape called KTVU-TV in Oakland while in lockup and awaiting trial.

He told the TV station the body cam footage shows “the tree of liberty isn’t dying. It’s been killed, systematically and deliberately.”

“The people killing it have names and addresses,” DePape told the TV station. “So I got their names and addresses, so I could pay them a little visit and have a heart-to-heart chat about their bad behavior.”

DePape said he was “so sorry I didn’t get more of them” and he “should have come better prepared” to carry out his planned attacks, Ramsey says in the sentencing request.

While on trial, DePape said his freedom of speech and freedom of the press were violated by a mandated removal of his website.

Ramsey says DePape’s actions rise to the level of terrorism and he should be sentenced accordingly.

DePape is a Canadian citizen who entered the United States as a temporary visitor in 2008 and illegally stayed more than six months, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

DePape is scheduled for sentencing on Friday.

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