The mess that happened at the Pelosi household has left a lot of us asking questions about what happened. There are a lot of things that just aren’t adding up about how everything supposedly went down. But I think we’re going to get some answers very soon. On Wednesday, a judge in San Francisco handed down a ruling that body camera footage from the October 2022 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, must be made public. This decision followed requests by an array of news outlets, including the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and New York Times, who wanted access to evidence related to David DePape, the alleged attacker.
The media coalition initially demanded access to the footage when it was presented in open court as part of evidence during a preliminary hearing. Aside from body camera recordings they also requested other information such as Paul Pelosi’s 911 call, US Capitol Police surveillance video from outside his home, and an interview between DePape and a San Francisco Police Department examiner.
According to charging documents from the case against DePape, police officers witnessed the incident which was captured on their body cameras. The documents described how both men were holding a hammer and that DePape had his other hand gripping onto Paul Pelosi’s forearm when officers asked them to drop it. In response, DePape wrestled the hammer from him and swung it at Pelosi’s head.
In light of this ruling by Judge Stephen Murphy, court staff will now be working to make copies of all requested exhibits so they can be distributed through an attorney for the media coalition. However, some opposition has been voiced by representatives for DePape who feel that releasing this material could affect their client’s ability to receive a fair trial given all the state and federal charges he faces, including battery, attempted murder, elder abuse and attempted kidnapping of a federal officer connected with this attack in October 2022.