David DePape’s legal team seeks to move trial from San Francisco

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
11:02 AM – Thursday, July 20, 2023  

Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was reportedly beaten with a hammer last year during a home invasion in San Francisco, California. David DePape, a “hemp jewelry maker” originally from Powell River, British Columbia, was arrested on October 28^th in connection with the unsuspecting attack.

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DePape has since pled not guilty to charges of burglary, elder abuse, and attempted murder.

His defense team is requesting that the trial be moved to Eureka, Oregon, claiming there is a likely chance that a San Francisco jury would be biased against DePape since Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has represented the city since 1987.

Attorneys for the man charged in last year’s attack on former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband are pushing for his federal trial to be relocated out of San Francisco, claiming that the tremendous attention and liberal bias will prevent him from receiving a fair trial.

DePape is due in federal court on Wednesday, and his defense team will petition the judge to relocate the trial to Eureka, Oregon. The federal trial is scheduled to begin on November 13^th.

Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang, his federal public defenders, claimed that media coverage of the case in the San Francisco Bay Area has polluted the pool of jurors. According to a study they conducted, many potential jurors already feel he is guilty of the charges without even hearing his perspective.

Prosecutors say DePape broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home on Oct. 28^th and battered her 83-year-old husband Paul with a hammer instead of kidnapping the former speaker, who was out of town at the time. The political world was shocked by the violent footage of the incident, as well as Paul Pelosi’s strange 9-1-1 phone call to police where he originally said he would not need back up while slurring his words.

In addition to pleading not guilty to federal charges of trying to abduct a government official and injuring a family member of a federal official, he pleaded not guilty to state crimes such as attempted murder, burglary, and elder abuse. He is still being held without bail.

After a California court dismissed prosecutors’ attempts to keep the incident secret. Footage of the attack was made public in January.