David DePape breaks down in tears testifying about political beliefs in Paul Pelosi attack trial | CPT PPP Coverage

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“At that time I was biased against Trump, but there’s, like, truth there,” he said, sobbing. “So if there’s truth out there that I don’t know, I want to know it.”

DePape, a Canadian national who was apparently drawn into a web of right-wing conspiracy theories that flourish online, faces two federal charges: assault on an immediate family member of a federal official and attempted kidnapping of a federal official. He has pleaded not guilty. 

Federal prosecutors must prove  that DePape actions were driven by Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s official duties as a member of Congress when he carried out his attack on Paul Pelosi in the small hours Oct. 28., 2022.

In the months before he allegedly carried out the attack, DePape said he was spending any waking hours he had in between work playing video games and listening to political podcasts, mainly through YouTube. 

He most commonly listened to conservative commentators Tim Pool and James Lindsay, DePape said. Lindsay, DePape said, led him to believe that certain academics and professors were implanting dangerous ideas into school curriculums, particularly concepts related to sexuality. DePape said he focused considerable attention on a professor that DePape’s lawyers called “Target 1.” 

That professor was identified as Gayle Rubin at the University of Michigan during court proceedings tied to the charges DePape faces in San Francisco.

According to prosecutors, DePape sought to confront Rep. Nancy Pelosi when he broke into the Pelosis’ Pacific Heights home and came to Paul Pelosi’s bedside, clutching a hammer and demanding to speak to his wife.

DePape’s lawyers contend instead that Rep. Nancy Pelosi was only meant to be the first stop in his “larger” plan to target other public figures he believed were harming people, including Tom Hanks, Hunter Biden, George Soros and Rep. Adam Schiff, former Attorney General Bill Barr, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

DePape’s lawyers attempted to tease out DePape’s worldview during questioning in the hopes of supporting their arguments that confronting Rep. Nancy Pelosi was a single step in DePape’s broader plan to address what he saw as ills of the world. 

Rubin, DePape said, was trying to turn the nation’s schools into “pedophile molestation factories” that would destroy children’s sense of identity, leading them to grow up dysfunctional and unhappy. Through this pipeline, “maladjusted” children would hate society and want to become “communist activists.”

His testimony came a day after Paul Pelosi, the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, took the stand. Paul Pelosi testified about the details of the attack, and said he had gone to considerable lengths to avoid reliving what he described as a traumatic event. Pelosi suffered a fractured skull and other serious injuries following the attack.