A federal grand jury indicted David DePape on assault and attempted kidnapping charges Wednesday in connection with a violent break-in at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home last month.
DePape, 42, faces a pair of federal charges: assault on an immediate family member of a U.S. official with the intent to retaliate against the official over their professional duties and attempted kidnapping of a federal official over their professional performance.
The charges are tied to the brutal attack on the speaker’s husband, Paul Pelosi.
If he is convicted, DePape could face up of 30 years in prison on the assault count and 20 years for attempted kidnapping.
DePape also faces a series of state charges, including attempted murder, residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, false imprisonment of an elder and threats to a public official and their family. He has pleaded not guilty to all state charges.
According to Wednesday's indictment, Paul Pelosi told police that DePape, of Richmond, California, whom Pelosi said he had never met before, came into his bedroom while he was sleeping. He said DePape was looking for Nancy Pelosi.
DePape told investigators that the speaker was on a "target list" he had created as part of an effort to "fight tyranny," and he said he regarded her as the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party, the indictment says. Investigators said DePape identified another target whom he believed Nancy Pelosi could "lure" to him. That person was not named in the indictment.
Two responding officers discovered Pelosi and his assailant struggling over a hammer, which DePape is alleged to have used to strike Pelosi in the head before officers restrained him.
Pelosi was discharged from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital this month after he underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and his hands.