The chilling audio from Paul Pelosi’s 911 call after an intruder broke into his San Francisco home was released on Friday, with the 82-year-old heard calmly telling the operator ‘I’ve got a problem.’
Pelosi can be heard tactfully trying to explain the frightening situation while the intruder, David DePape, warns him to hang up the phone.
DePape is heard saying ‘I’m a friend’ when the dispatcher asks Pelosi if he knew who the strange man was.
The husband of former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, made the desperate 911 call moments before cops arrived at the home and he was violently assaulted with a hammer in October.
Paul Pelosi answer the door of his San Francisco home in boxer shorts and a pajama top while intruder David DePape stands behind him
Capitol Police security cameras captured David DePape outside the home Pelosi shares with wife and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
The nearly-three-minute call was made public on Friday after a judge ordered its release, alongside shocking police body camera footage of the moment Pelosi was attacked.
Pelosi is heard speaking calmly with the operator, identified as Heather Grives, as he attempts to subtly warn her that he is in danger.
‘There is a gentleman here waiting for my wife to come back,’ he said.
‘She’s not going to be here for a day, so I guess we’ll have to wait.’
‘Is the Capitol Police around? They’re usually here at the house protecting my wife.’
The dispatcher then informs Pelosi he is calling the San Francisco police, leading him to ask DePape: ‘What do you think?’
Following a brief muffled conversation, the intruder bluntly tells Pelosi: ‘I think we’re ok.’
‘He thinks everything’s good, I’ve got a problem, but he thinks everything’s good,’ Pelosi relays to the dispatcher.
The shocking bodycam footage shows Pelosi, 82, on the ground after being hit with the hammer which left him with a skull fracture in two places and for serious injuries to his right arm and hand
DePape (right) allegedly broke into Paul Pelosi’s home as he wanted to find his wife, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
When the operator then tells Pelosi to call back if the situation changes, he quickly cuts her off, telling her: ‘No, this gentleman just came into my house, and he wants to wait for my wife to come home.’
‘I don’t know who he is.
‘He’s telling me not to do anything.’
‘He’s telling me to put the phone down, and to do what he says.’
In a bizarre exchange, DePape then tells the 911 operator that he is ‘a friend’ of the Pelosi’s.
‘He says he’s a friend, but I don’t know him,’ responds Pelosi.
‘He’s telling me I’m being very leading, so I have to stop talking to you ok?’
She offers to stay on the line with the 82-year-old, but Pelosi then quickly ends the conversation, appearing to tell the operator DePape wants him ‘to get the hell off the phone.’
David DePape has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges stemming from the October assault
Prosecutors allege that Pelosi was asleep in his San Francisco home just before 2:00am on October 28 when 42-year-old DePape broke in looking for his wife.
Shocking bodycam footage released alongside the chilling 911 call revealed the moment Pelosi was violently assaulted by DePape after police arrive at his home.
The video shows two police officers arriving at the home, knocking on the door and waiting around 20 seconds before it is answered.
Pelosi, in a pajama top and boxer shorts, answers the door as he and DePape both struggle for control of a hammer.
They each have a hand on the weapon while Pelosihas a drink in his left hand.
When an officer asks, ‘What’s going on man?’ DePape replies, ‘Everything’s good.’
After the officer says: ‘Drop the hammer,’ the intruder tells them, ‘Ummm… nope.’
Then, Pelosi attempts to twist the hammer out of DePape’s hand, but the suspect regains control of the weapon and strikes him multiple times.
The two police officers rush in and tackle DePape, shouting, ‘Give me your f*****g hands.’
Eventually, they restrain the attacker as Paul Pelosi lies collapsed and prone on the floor.
The indictment in the case said that blood was ‘swelling’ out of the victim’s head. The video shows liquid and ice on the ground around the two men.
In the aftermath of the attack, Pelosi required surgery on a skull fracture in two places and was treated for serious injuries to his right arm and hands.
The release comes after Judge Stephen M. Murphy’s ordered on Wednesday that there was no legal reason to keep the footage private.
The decision was argued against by the prosecutors.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill earlier this week, Nancy Pelosi said that she would find if ‘very difficult’ to watch the footage of the assault on her husband.
‘I mean, it would be a very hard thing to see an assault on my husband’s life,’ she said.
The federal six-page indictment in the attack described DePape and Paul Pelosi fighting over the hammer when the police arrived.
Media requests for access to the material had been denied by the district attorney’s office, which added to the string of conspiracy theories and misinformation which spread about the attack in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections.
DePape is alleged to have been targeting Nancy Pelosi, who was not at home, in his attack.
Prosecutors say he planned to ‘interrogate’ her and to break her kneecaps if he felt he was being lied to.
Today’s released video and audio have already been played in open court during a preliminary hearing against DePape in December.
In that hearing, prosecutors played portions of Paul Pelosi’s 911 call plus footage from Capitol police surveillance cameras, body cameras worn by the two police officers who arrived at the house, and video from DePape’s police interview.
DePape broke into the Pelosi’s San Francisco home in October
FBI agents work outside the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi where her husband Paul Pelosi was ‘violently assaulted’ after a break-in at their house. Pictured October 28, 2022
DePape pleaded not guilty last month to six charges, including attempted murder
San Francisco-based attorney Thomas Burke disagreed with the earlier decisions not to release the video and audio.
He told the Associated Press, ‘You don’t eliminate the public right of access just because of concerns about conspiracy theories.’
When asked about her husband’s prognosis on Thursday, Nancy Pelosi told reporters: ‘It’s one day at a time. He’s made some progress, but it will be three more months, I think, before he’s back to normal.’
Last week, the couple’s daughter Alexandra revealed in an interview that her mother held exorcisms at the family’s home over Thanksgiving in the wake of the attack in an attempt to rid the home of evil spirits.
DePape pleaded not guilty last month to six charges, including attempted murder. Police have said DePape told them there was ‘evil in Washington’ and he wanted to harm Nancy Pelosi because she was in line to the presidency.
His case is pending.