Feds charge alleged Pelosi attacker with attempted kidnapping

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Mon Oct 31, 2022, 04:13 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: Washington Post

Federal authorities on Monday filed attempted kidnapping and assault charges against the alleged home invader accused of striking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer in front of police officers, claiming he wanted to break her kneecaps to send a message to other Democrats.

The charges were contained in a new court filing that recounts incriminating statements that the defendant, David Wayne DePape, 42, made following his arrest in the early morning hours Friday at the Pelosi home in San Francisco.

The new court papers offer a horrifying summary of Pelosi's 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, being woken up in the middle of the night by a strange man at his bed, demanding to know where his wife was. When Paul Pelosi said she would not be back at the home for days, DePape allegedly said he would wait.

At some point during their confrontation, Paul Pelosi was able to get to a bathroom and call 911, which brought police officers to the scene, the court papers said.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/31/pelosi-attack-republicans-house-speaker/

---

Article updated.

No paywall

Original article -

Federal authorities on Monday filed attempted kidnapping and assault charges against the alleged home invader accused of striking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer. The charges were contained in a new court filing that recounts incriminating statements that the defendant, David Wayne DePape, 42, made following his arrest.

DePape allegedly struck Pelosi's 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer in front of officers responding to the incident in the early morning hours Friday. After he was taken into custody, DePape allegedly said he planned to "hold Nancy hostage and talk to her," according to the charging papers. "If Nancy were to tell 'the truth,' he would let her go, and if she 'lied' he was going to break 'her kneecaps'," the charging papers said.

The new charges come as Republicans and others on the right amplified misinformation and outright falsehoods about last week's violent assault on Paul Pelosi.

The innuendo about the attack that billionaire Elon Musk and right-wing personalities spread on social media this past weekend showed no signs of abating Monday, as elected officials and other conservatives perpetuated wild theories.

No paywall

[NullTuples]

1. Of Nancy, sure. What about attempted murder or manslaughter of Paul???

[SheltieLover]

2. Assassination attempt? Where is this charge?

[BumRushDaShow]

3. These are "federal" charges - not the SF police charges (which haven't been announced yet)

Waiting to see what the SF D.A. files.

[SheltieLover]

4. Wouldn't assassination attempt of Speaker be Fed charge?

Not sure.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. There is nothing stopping them from adding on "superceding charges"

if they have additional proof for that.

Since these are criminal charges, they must be iron clad and "beyond a reasonable doubt". Since she was over 3000 miles from where this occurred, then that introduces some doubt that could be argued.

[Cha]

8. Yeah, but Stupid didn't know that

and admitted what he was going to do.

Some rw lawyer asshole might get a hold of him and tell him to recant or some such shit tricks they'll come up with.

I hope he goes to prison for a very long time.

[sarisataka]

9. From my non-exhaustive research

Both attempted killing and kidnapping are in the same statute and section- 18 U.S.C. § 351 c.

Likely they feel it will be easier to get an attempted kidnapping conviction and the penalty is the same.

[Cha]

6. OMG.. this is new info to me.. I'm glad

Depape is so GD Stupid so there's Proof of what this Idiot did.

He actually hit Paul Pelosi in front of the Police?!! So did they rush to grab him and his Hammer!?

And, said After Apprehended what he was going to do to Nancy Pelosi!!

Spin that Musk and fellow Assholes.

[onetexan]

7. This was an ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION - our Speaker was targeted

did they charge him with attempted assassination? If not they need to do so!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. Why federal charges? I am aware that the state is coming along to file charges too. Thanks. NT

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Apparently they used a couple federal statutes to do it

The complaint is here (PDF) - https://docs-cdn-prod.news-engineering.aws.wapo.pub/publish_document/5cb80990-a986-4cc4-b7ff-6e5d2450fc0f/published/5cb80990-a986-4cc4-b7ff-6e5d2450fc0f.pdf

-18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(A), (b) -Assault on the immediate family member of a federal official

-18 U.S.C. § 1201(d) -Attempted kidnapping of a federal official

ETA - these statutes were apparently enacted in 1984 (and updated in 1988) to supplement a "local" LEO response to "terroristic" / "political" threats.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. I'm no expert, but I'm wondering about that attempted kidnapping charge.

"Attempted kidnapping of a federal official" seems a bit of a stretch.

What do I know? IANAL, and the people filing the charges are U.S. attorneys.

And good morning.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Good morning and I literally just updated the post to include where this came from

https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-1628-protection-member-federal-officials-family-18-usc-115

Edit to include a section from the above link that was apparently triggered in the suspect's "jailhouse confession" -

The purpose of these provisions is to provide comprehensive protection against attempts to impede, intimidate, or interfere with certain Federal officials' performance of their duties by the commission of crimes against members of the officials' immediate families or by threats to assault, murder, or kidnap the officials themselves. In cases of threats, the only intent requirement is that the government prove the defendant intentionally or knowingly communicates the threat, not that he/she intended or was able to carry out the threat. See United States v. Orozco-Santillan, 903 F.2d 1262 (9th Cir. 1990).