Who is Nancy Pelosi’s husband’s assailant, David DePape?
Police say 42-year-old David DePape, a radical nudist activist with a troubling internet presence, broke into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home Friday morning and attacked her husband with a hammer.
After responding to a complaint about 2:30 a.m., officers found the Berkeley man and the congresswoman’s 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, fighting over a hammer and detained him.
“The suspect pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said at a news briefing later that morning. “Our officers immediately tackled the suspect, disarmed him, took him into custody, requested emergency backup and rendered medical aid.”
Pelosi and DePape were hospitalized after the event.
Drew Hammill, Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson, said Pelosi will recover after skull surgery. His left arm and hands were severely injured.
Hammill stated DePape threatened Paul Pelosi’s life by requesting to see his wife.
The chief stated Mr. DePape would be booked at San Francisco County Jail for attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary, and other offenses.
He said the motive was being probed. Capitol Police and FBI assisted.
DePape has been called a nudist and a far-right extremist on Twitter.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said he was connected to Berkeley nudist activist Gypsy Taub.
“She was the ringleader and she was extremely aggressive and creepy,” Wiener told. “And I think he was one of the people in her work.”
He said they were not “regular” nudity activists. She was aggressive and a criminal who denied 9/11.
Last summer, Oxane Taub, who shared the address, was convicted of more than 20 crimes for stalking and attempting to kidnap a 14-year-old child.
“Over the course of 14 months, she sent him numerous obsessive emails, created blogs directed at him, used his friends to send him messages and eventually tried to abduct him a few blocks from his school in Berkeley,” District Attorney Nancy O’Malley’s office stated. Taub sought to prevent the victim from testifying during the case.
Oxane “Gypsy” Taub sued Wiener’s anti-nudity ordinance in 2017.
Friday afternoon, the FBI visited Taub and interrogated a young man about DePape. He said DePape had not been there in years.
Facebook removed DePape’s profile early Friday without explanation. DePape’s 2007 and 2022 blogs discuss “censorship,” “Big Brother,” and pedophiles. One was violent and antisemitic. San Francisco police did not immediately react to concerns concerning DePape’s online presence.
The suspect’s adoptive father Gene’s wife Teresa DePape told the San Francisco Chronicle that he departed Canada after high school, around two decades ago, and the family lost touch.
“I never thought of David as a violent person,” she told the tabloid. “I can see David defending himself – why he’s in somebody’ else’s house looking for someone, I don’t know.”