Man ‘wanted to kidnap Nancy Pelosi’

The man charged with attacking US house Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband intended to tie up the powerful politician and break her kneecaps with a hammer if she did not confess to Democratic ‘lies’.

US house Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Zagreb, Croatia, last week. Picture: AFP

The man charged with attacking US house Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband intended to tie up the powerful politician and break her kneecaps with a hammer if she did not confess to Democratic “lies,” the Justice ­Department said.

California man David DePape was charged in federal court in San Francisco with attempting to kidnap a US official and assaulting her family member over her actions in her job, charges that could bring up to 50 years in jail.

The Justice Department said Mr DePape had tape, rope, zip ties and other materials with him when he broke into the couple’s San Francisco mansion last week, but found only her husband Paul Pelosi, whom he attacked with a hammer.

The FBI said Mr DePape told them after his arrest he viewed Mrs Pelosi as responsible for lies told by her Democratic Party.

He intended to hold her hostage and talk to her, police said.

“If Nancy were to tell DePape the ‘truth’, he would let her go, and if she ‘lied’, he was going to break ‘her kneecaps’,” a police affidavit said.

Mr DePape, 42, who lived in a garage in nearby Richmond, California and had posted right-wing conspiracy theories on social media, broke into the house early on Friday. Mrs Pelosi was not in San Francisco at the time.

Awakened by the break-in, Paul Pelosi dialled the 911 emergency number and meanwhile talked to Mr DePape, seeking to keep the situation calm.

But when police arrived the two struggled over a hammer and Mr DePape smashed Mr Pelosi’s head with it, leaving him unconscious with a skull fracture and ­serious injuries to his right arm and hands, according to the affidavit.

Mr DePape later told authorities that Mr Pelosi was “taking the punishment instead” of his wife, given her absence. He is expected to recover from the attack.

AFP