Today in a San Francisco courtroom, trial begins against David DePape, the man accused of assaulting Paul Pelosi and attempting to kidnap former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in October 2022.
Evidence against him seems overwhelming — police body-camera video showed a man hammering Paul Pelosi over the head after the attacker smashed through the windows of the couple’s San Francisco home in what he described to investigators as a plot to interrogate the Democratic lawmaker and possibly “break her kneecaps.”
And yet, Times reporter Hannah Wiley reports, the federal trial that opens today won’t be so straightforward.
U.S. District Court Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has rejected the idea that this is a simple “open and shut” assault case, arguing that the government bears the “heavy burden” of proving that DePape intended to kidnap the former speaker when he broke into her home, and that he assaulted Paul Pelosi with the intent to interfere with the lawmaker’s official duties or retaliate against her.
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DePape, a Canada native who spent years running in eclectic circles in the Bay Area before spiraling into far-right conspiracies, faces up to a combined 50 years in prison if convicted. He’s pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Read more about the case, and the potential challenges prosecutors could face in landing convictions, in this article.
I’m Laurel Rosenhall, The Times’ Sacramento bureau chief, here with your guide to the week’s biggest news in California...
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