A federal judge sentenced David DePape to 30 years in prison on Friday, six months after a jury found him guilty of attempting to kidnap former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and using a hammer to beat her husband in a bloody assault in October 2022.
Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley issued her decision during a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, extensively rebuking DePape and saying she believed he continued to pose a danger to the public and “all Americans.” ”.
“He broke into that public official's home, broke into that private space of the home and violently attacked the wife of a public official,” Scott Corley said. “What that means and why this is so detrimental now for everyone in the country and in the future, is that when someone is considering now whether they want to go into public service, they have to think not only about whether I am willing to take that risk myself myself, but am I willing to risk my spouse, my children, my grandchildren?”
DePape, dressed in an orange prison tracksuit and wearing ankle cuffs, did not react openly when his sentence was read.
The sentencing caps a federal trial that captivated the nation and raised chilling questions about the safety of public officials amid heightened political extremism and the proliferation of online sites that fuel baseless fanatical conspiracy theories.
In letters to the judge that her daughter, Christine Pelosi, read in court, both Nancy and Paul Pelosi asked the judge to impose long sentences.
In her letter, Nancy Pelosi said her husband continues to suffer physically and emotionally from the attack and that the violent incident “has had a devastating effect on three generations of our family.”
“Therefore, it is necessary that the guilty party's sentence be very long as punishment for the attack and injuries that Paul continues to suffer, and as a deterrent to others who consider violence against public officials,” the former spokesman wrote.
Paul Pelosi said his life “has changed irrevocably” and that he has not fully recovered. He noted that a bloodstain at the front entrance and the metal plate now embedded in his head serve as lasting reminders of the assault.
Federal prosecutors had sought a 40-year federal prison sentence with a terrorism aggravation, arguing that DePape has shown no remorse and that a harsh sentence would serve as a deterrent to other potential attackers motivated by ideological extremism.
“At a time when extremism has led to attacks against public and elected officials, this case presents a moment to speak to others who harbor ideologically motivated violent dreams and plans,” the assistant U.S. attorneys said. Helen Gilbert and Laura Vartain Horn wrote in a May 10 paper.
DePape faced a total of 50 years in federal prison: 30 years for the assault charge and 20 years for the attempted kidnapping charge. Scott Corley sentenced him to the maximum sentence on both charges, but to be served concurrently for a total of 30 years. He will receive credit for the approximately 18 months he spent in state custody.
DePape, 44, was accused of traveling from his Richmond residence to Pelosi's Pacific Heights home in the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 2022, with plans to hold the lawmaker hostage and interrogate her about claims unfounded driven by a far-right conspiracy. theorists of corruption, human trafficking, and child abuse by Democrats and other public figures.
DePape broke into the house, but instead of finding Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, he stumbled upon the bedroom where her husband was sleeping.
“The door opened and a very large man walked in, with a hammer in one hand and some ties in the other,” Paul Pelosi testified. “And he said, 'Where's Nancy?' And I think that's what woke me up.”
He was able to grab his cell phone in the bathroom and dial 911. When police arrived, the two men were fighting over DePape's hammer. Prosecutors showed jurors graphic police body camera video of DePape punching Paul Pelosi, then 82, fracturing his skull and seriously injuring his right arm and left hand.
State charges still pending accuse DePape of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, robbery and threats to a public official and his or her family. Instead, the federal trial focused on whether DePape's actions that morning were indelibly tied to Speaker Pelosi's official duties in Congress.
In presenting their case, federal prosecutors provided jurors with a detailed review of DePape's online purchases and search history to show how he spent months preparing for the attack. Jurors heard portions of a police interview in which DePape said he considered Speaker Pelosi the “leader of the Democratic caucus” and said he would “break her kneecaps” if she did not admit to corruption and other allegations of human and child trafficking. . abuse.
DePape's federal public defenders, Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang, had urged the judge to consider a more lenient 14-year sentence, arguing that their client suffers from mental health issues and trauma from an abusive relationship with Gypsy Taub, his former romantic partner. and mother. of her children.
Linker and Chuang never questioned that their client committed the violence. Instead, they attempted to convince the jury that DePape was motivated by elaborate conspiracy theories that were nevertheless his deepest beliefs.
They referenced letters of support from family and friends that described the crimes as “completely out of character.”
“David was never violent when he was young and I am sorry this happened,” DePape's stepfather, Gene DePape, wrote in a statement to the Times. “I feel so sorry for Paul and Nancy.”
Lawyers based much of their request for leniency on the influence of Taub, a Bay Area nudist activist who recently served time in state prison for attempting to kidnap a 14-year-old boy in Berkeley. They argued that Taub isolated DePape from his family and “plunged him into a world of extreme beliefs where reality is not reality.”
“His long-term relationship with his former partner, Gypsy Taub, inflicted immeasurable harm on his mental state and the little support network he had in the form of his family,” DePape's attorneys wrote in a Sept. 10 sentencing memo. May.
David DePape with Gypsy Taub at their nude wedding on the steps of San Francisco City Hall in 2013.
(San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Chuang reiterated that argument during the sentencing hearing, saying DePape was “gaslighted, abused and very intentionally separated from his family,” as Taub watched silently from a court bench.
In a recorded audio statement he sent to the Times this week, Taub dismissed the attorneys' allegations of abuse and said, “I love David. “I will always love him, no matter what he does or says.”
“He is an incredibly beautiful human being. But he is very broken,” Taub said.
During an interview with The Times before DePape's trial at his cluttered, eclectic Berkeley home, Taub espoused a number of conspiracy theories, using phrases nearly identical to those DePape shared in his testimony, including his belief that terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were truly “an inside job” and that government has been corrupted by satanic cults that prey on children.
At the time, she insisted that DePape had been falsely accused in the Pelosi attack and described him as sweet and gentle. She was such a nice person, she said, that even after marrying another man, she allowed DePape to continue living in her home and supported him financially.
In a video Taub shared more than a decade ago, she and DePape are naked, talking about their recent experience with psychedelics at a Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
“What is your dream for the planet?” Taub asked.
“I would very much like there to be peace,” he responded.
“And if everyone could hear you right now, what would be your message to the world?” she asked.
“God is love. God is loving,” he said. “And this is an illusion.”
