SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Hammer attack suspect David DePape’s confession was released by a San Francisco judge to the media on Friday.

DePape was interrogated by San Francisco Police Department Lt. Carla Hurley while he was in custody just hours after he allegedly attacked Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband on October 28, 2022.

In the tape, the 42-year-old Richmond resident confesses to breaking into Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home, finding Paul Pelosi, and ultimately striking him with a hammer. The former House Speaker was not at home during the 2 a.m. break-in.

DePape also explains his motive. He described Nancy Pelosi as a liar who deceives “the entire American public.” DePape said he believes Nancy Pelosi was “leader of the pack” for the Democrats’ campaign taking down former president Donald Trump, and “stealing” the 2020 presidential election. His plan was to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, and if she lied to him, he’d break her kneecaps, according to the tape.

DePape says he targeted Nancy Pelosi to “fight tyranny” and he had no intentions of surrendering until his mission was accomplished.

In addition to the tape’s release Friday, Superior Court Judge Stephen M. Murphy also released a San Francisco Police Department officer’s body camera that recorded the assault, Paul Pelosi’s 911 call for help, and home surveillance video of the break-in.

DePape Confession Tape

HURLEY: “David? How are you doing? I’m Sgt. Hurley with the San Francisco Police Department. I’m in the Special Investigations Unit. How are you doing right now?” 

DEPAPE: “I’m good, do you want to talk right now?”

HURLEY: “Yeah if that’s OK?” 

DEPAPE: “I prefer to nap, but I guess I could.”

Hurley asks DePape for his full name, date of birth, and phone number. He answers. 

HURLEY: “Where are you staying?” 

DEPAPE: “Honestly, I know how to get there, I don’t like go by the address. It’s on Chafsta Street. Chafsta Street in Richmond.” 

HURLEY: “Is it an actual house?”

DEPAPE: “It’s kind of like a garage of a house.”

HURLEY: “I just want to ask you a few questions, but first I’m going to read you your rights.” 

Hurley reads DePape his Miranda Rights. 

HURLEY: “Do you know why you are in custody?” 

DEPAPE: “Oh absolutely.” 

HURLEY: “OK, so I just wanted to make sure that you are OK, you know. And, you know, why did you, how did you end up there this morning?”

DEPAPE: “Um, well, (inaudible). But yeah, I mean, I’m not trying to get away with it. You know I know exactly what I did.” 

HURLEY: “Did you feel like the Pelosi’s had done something to you?” 

DEPAPE: “Well not me specifically, to the entire American public, honestly.”

HURLEY: “How so?” 

DEPAPE: “F***ing lies are insane. Her specifically. Of all the people in Washington that are lying, she has to be the “f**ing leader of the pack. You know Watergate right? Whenever there is a scandal we name this XX gate right? It becomes the defining scandal. And all the Watergate was was spying on a rival campaign. And just like, when Trump came into office, what they did went so far beyond spying on a rival campaign. It’s just crazy.” 

HURLEY: “You mean like her efforts to smear him?”

DEPAPE: “Like Hillary and the DNC. And it’s like, it originates with Hillary. But like, Pelosi ran with the lie as much as anyone. Honestly, day in and day out the person who was on the TV lying everyday was Pelosi. I mean, Hillary (inaudible) doesn’t really have a position. And it’s like, this is like a f***ing record-breaking crime spree the Democratic party has been on for the past four years. It’s f***ing insane.”

HURLEY: “When you say crime spree, are you talking about how their laws and what they’re doing have effected crime? Or that they themselves are criminals?” 

DEPAPE: “They are criminals. Not only were they spying on a rival campaign, they were submitting fake evidence to spy on a rival campaign, covering it up, persecuting a rival campaign.” 

HURLEY: “When you say a rival campaign, you’re talking about Trump?” 

DEPAPE: “Trump, yes. And it’s just like an endless f***ing crime spree. It’s like they go from one crime, to another crime, to another crime, to another crime. And it’s just like the whole f***ing four years until they were finally able to steal the election. And it’s unacceptable.” 

HURLEY: “So what was your intention to go there? To make her change her ways?”

DEPAPE: “Um, well I was going to basically hold her hostage and I was going to talk to her. If she told the truth, I’d let her go Scott free. If she f***ing lied I’d break her kneecaps.”

HURLEY: “Did you really think that she would …

DEPAPE: “Tell the truth?”

HURLEY: “Yeah.”

DEPAPE: “No absoluatelly f***ing not. I knew beyond a doubt she would f***ing lie.” 

HURLEY: “So you think that it was a poor plan? Do you regret that you did this?”

DEPAPE: “No, it needed to be done.” 

HURLEY: “You know the person you attacked is Paul Pelosi?”

DEPAPE: “He was not my target, I even told him that.” 

HURLEY: “What was your plan with him? He already told you, ‘She’s not home.'”

DePape answers by describing how he broke through the glass door of the Pelosi’s house and confronted Paul Pelosi. 

DEPAPE: “I had to body slam my way through it. I didn’t feel any pain. Honestly I didn’t feel any pain until the cops tackled me.” 

DEPAPE: “(Paul Pelosi) was asleep. All that noise, he did not hear. So then he basically wakes up. And um, we are kind of talking. I don’t remember the specifics. But like vaguely, I kind of told him I’m looking for Nancy Pelosi. He says she’s not here. (Inaudible). He was like, how can we resolve this? And I’m like, I don’t know. And um, so he’s kinda’ like asking that a bunch.” 

DePape then told Mr. Pelosi that he wanted to tie him up so DePape could take a nap. DePape said Paul Pelosi tried to escape from the bedroom, but he blocked his exit to an elevator. Paul Pelosi then went into a bathroom, called 911 with his cellphone, and put it on speaker. 

DEPAPE: “He’s pushing me into a corner. Dude, like, he’s pushing me into a corner where I have to do something.” 

After Mr. Pelosi talked to the 911 dispatcher and hung up, DePape said he explained to Paul Pelosi that he can’t be stopped because he has other political targets. 

DEPAPE: “I explain to him really frankly … I have other targets and I can’t be stopped by him. If I have to go through him, I will.” 

HURLEY: “Why didn’t you think about leaving? You know (the police) were coming? Why didn’t you just leave?” 

DEPAPE: “It’s like the Founding Fathers. They fought the British, they fought the tyranny, and they did not just f***ing surrender to it. When I left my house, I left to go fight tyranny. I did not leave to go surrender.”

After the interrogation with Lt. Hurley, prosecutors charged DePape with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree burglary, threatening a family member of a public official, and inflicting injury on an elder.

The video and audio tapes were released by Judge Murphy in response to a public information request filed by several media outlets. The tapes were played in court for a preliminary hearing held in December, but copies of the footage were not released to the news media until Friday.

The District Attorney’s Office argued that releasing the footage would only allow people to manipulate it, leading to false information spreading. DePape’s defense attorney, Deputy Public Defender Adam Lipson, said the judge made a “terrible mistake” by releasing the footage, which “serves no purpose except to feed the public desire for spectacle and violence. The footage is inflammatory and could feed unfounded theories about this case, and we are extremely concerned about Mr. DePape’s ability to get a fair trial.”

DePape is being held in jail without bail as he awaits trial.