A graphic video showing the attack on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul last October was released Friday by a San Francisco court.
The video confirms a narrative investigators provided after the attack. It shows police arriving to the Pelosi home to find Paul Pelosi and the suspect, David DePape, holding a hammer. At some point, DePape gains control of the hammer and attacks Pelosi. Police then tackle DePape.
DePape is accused of breaking into the lawmaker’s San Francisco home one early morning in late October and attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer, fracturing the 82-year-old’s skull and causing other serious injuries.
A coalition of at least a dozen news organizations, including The Times, asked the court to order the San Francisco district attorney’s office to release copies of the records already submitted into evidence, arguing that the news media and public had a right to review them.
DePape’s lawyers opposed making that evidence public, saying it could jeopardize his right to a fair trial and stir up more misinformation about the case. The attack on Pelosi spawned a flurry of unfounded conspiracy theories online, including on popular social media platforms.
San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Stephen Murphy disagreed with those objections, dismissing them as speculation. He said that while the right to a fair trial is “certainly a legitimate concern in any case,” the court couldn’t withhold the release of records out of fear that they could be manipulated.
