DOJ seeks 40-year term for attacker of Paul Pelosi

The Department of Justice is requesting a 40-year sentence against the man who broke into the Pelosis‘ home and assaulted Paul Pelosi with a hammer.

David DePape was previously convicted by a jury of not only assaulting Paul Pelosi but also attempting to kidnap then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Prosecutors argued that a sentence of 40 years in prison was needed to assure elected officials that they wouldn’t live in fear.

“Here, it is not the public that needs protecting, but the public officials. Our public officials should not live in fear of their lives, but attacks like the defendant’s breed fear and dissuade people from running for office or otherwise taking roles in the public sphere,” prosecutors wrote. “At this moment in time, this defendant continues to present as a strong risk—to the Speaker Emerita and others—because of his failure to accept responsibility.”

Prosecutors also justified the sentence given DePape never expressed remorse for his crimes.

“The defendant seemed proud of what he had accomplished,” prosecutors wrote. “Hours later, when interviewed by Sergeant Hurley, the defendant also expressed no remorse about nearly killing Mr. Pelosi, and instead explained the other targets that he had not been able to reach.”

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The filing cites the example of white supremacist Matthew Hale, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison for encouraging an undercover agent to kidnap a federal judge, as precedent, noting that Hale’s case wasn’t as severe as DePape’s.

In a trial lasting less than a week, DePape was convicted by a jury late last year of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault upon an immediate family member of a federal official. He didn’t show emotion while the conviction was read out.