Accused Paul Pelosi attacker was caught up in conspiracies: Defense attorney

The defense attorney for a man accused of attacking former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, Paul Pelosi, in October 2022, said Thursday that David DePape was caught up in conspiracy theories.

Jodi Linker, who represents DePape in a trial that began earlier this week in San Francisco, said she isn’t disputing that DePape attacked Paul Pelosi, 82. She added that she will argue DePape believed “with every ounce of his being” he was trying to end government corruption and child abuse from politicians and actors.

“This is not a ‘whodunit.’ But what the government fails to acknowledge is the ‘whydunit,’ and the why matters in this case,” Linker said, according to The Associated Press.

DePape has pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official with intent to retaliate against the official for performance of their duties. The central piece of Linker’s argument is that DePape wasn’t targeting the former Speaker in an attempt to stop her from her official work.

“These beliefs matter, because both charges require that the government prove that Mr. DePape acted because of her performance of her official duties as a member of Congress,” Linker said, according to the AP.

Laura Vartain Horn, a federal prosecutor, told jurors that DePape began planning his attack in August 2022, and that evidence and testimony from the FBI will show he researched his alleged targets online, worked on collecting phone numbers and addresses and went so far as to pay a public records service for information on Nancy Pelosi, among others.

During her opening statement, Vartain Horn showed a picture of Paul Pelosi in a pool of blood, and played a call DePape made to a television station in which he repeated conspiracy theories. 

“The evidence in this case is going show that when the defendant used this hammer to break into the Pelosi’s home, he intended to kidnap Nancy Pelosi,” Vartain Horn said, holding a hammer in an evidence bag, according to the AP.