SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: David DePape, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping of a federal officer and assault of an immediate family, has admitted that he wanted to interrogate Nancy Pelosi and he is "sorry" for beating former House Speaker's husband.
The 43-year-old former nudist from Canada revealed how his fringe political beliefs brought him to the Pelosi home as he took the stand in his federal trial on Tuesday, November 14.
The attacker was taken into custody after he broke into Pelosi's San Francisco mansion through a back door in the early hours of October 28, 2022, and battered 82-year-old Paul. With a fractured skull, Pelosi was hospitalized following the attack.
What did David DePape say in his testimony?
During his testimony, DePape claimed that his objective was to get the former House Speaker and his other well-known "targets" to confess to their wrongdoing in order to persuade President Joe Biden to pardon the group.
He also admitted that he regretted injuring Pelosi and only reacted because his "plan was ruined."
“I don’t want to hurt you but I don’t want you to get in the way either,” he recalled telling Paul, Daily Mail reports.
"I was hoping he could take it back that would end this in a way that wouldn’t result in violence. He was a very amiable gentleman. I just gave him a squeeze on the shoulder to be reassuring,” he then addressed the court.
Furthermore, DePape stated that he felt "extremely bad" after he struck out at Paul.
“When he was on the ground, bleeding, I was really scared for his life. I felt really bad for him because we had a really good rapport until like the last second,” he told the court.
“I reacted because my plan was basically ruined. He was never the target and I’m sorry he got hurt,” he added.
At one point, the attacker admitted that his original plan was to wear a unicorn costume while interrogating Nancy about Russian involvement in the 2016 election.
“I wanted to ask her a question about Russiagate and film it and post it online,” he stated, adding “I was planning to wear the unicorn costume and record it with the body camera I got. I kind of expected her to go along with me and tell me what I wanted to hear. The grand plan was to expose everything at the end about Hunter Biden.”
Why David DePape wanted to break Nancy Pelosi’s kneecap
In emotional testimony that lasted for more than an hour, the attacker stated that he was prepared to break Nancy Pelosi's kneecaps if she didn't tell the truth during his hoped-for interrogation.
He also claimed that he would listen to political podcasts that supported right-wing conspiracies as he played video games six hours a day.
When questioned about the night he made his way into the Pelosi's home, DePape recalled, “I was starting to worry nobody was home. He actually kind of woke up and startled me.”
“I asked him if Nancy Pelosi was here, and he said she’s not here. I asked when she was back, he said [the] weekend. At this point I was still hoping to go forward with this portion of plan. He was sitting on [the] bed intimidated,” DePape confessed.
“I was like, why don’t I restrain you and sleep? He got into the elevator and turned towards the phone. I inserted myself into the elevator with him, I turned to him and asked him, do you really want to try this?” DePape stated.
