The web historical past of the person accused of assaulting Paul Pelosi in his San Francisco house exhibits an obsession with far-right media and conspiracy theories starting from the Nice Reset to QAnon.
David DePape, 42, is accused of breaking into the Pacific Heights house shared by Paul Pelosi and Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi early Friday morning. Through the break-in, he allegedly demanded to see Nancy Pelosi and assaulted Paul Pelosi so violently that Pelosi wanted surgical procedure for his head wounds. He’s anticipated to make a full restoration; Nancy Pelosi was not house on the time of the assault.
Lengthy earlier than changing into a suspect in Pelosi’s assault, DePape had a repute within the Bay Space for fringe beliefs. He as soon as lived in Berkeley with Gypsy Taub, a nude activist who was recognized for espousing 9/11 conspiracy theories and is now in jail for stalking a teen boy. In keeping with Taub and others who know DePape, he hasn’t lived together with her for a while.
David DePape, middle, information Gypsy Taub being led away by police after her nude marriage ceremony outdoors Metropolis Corridor on Dec. 19, 2013, in San Francisco. DePape is accused of breaking into Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s house and severely beating her husband with a hammer.
Eric Risberg/AP
DePape’s WordPress weblog and Fb web page, each taken down since Friday, had been crammed with content material fashionable on far-right media and propaganda retailers. One of many WordPress posts was a picture making an attempt to attach varied conspiracies about youngster intercourse trafficking, an obsession amongst QAnon adherents; the picture exhibits the emblem of furnishings firm Wayfair, which some Q believers assume sells youngsters on its web site underneath the guise of high-priced furnishings. DePape additionally posted about Pizzagate, a conspiracy that imagines liberal politicians are trafficking youngsters out of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant.
“My associates can be like pizza gate was debunked their is NO such factor as elite pedophile intercourse rings and I’m like HELLO Epstein what planet are you on?” the publish reads.
Some posts use racial slurs, and others present a fixation with the concept white males are persecuted in America. “Hate speech is ONLY allowed that targets WHITE or MEN,” reads one meme DePape posted. In one other, he referred to “range” as a “canine whistle for the genocide of the white race.” He additionally posted content material questioning the Holocaust. One WordPress publish is titled “Hitlery did nothing unsuitable.”
DePape’s daughter confirmed to the Los Angeles Occasions that the weblog belonged to her father.
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Paul Pelosi Jr., son of U.S. Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi, background, walks with a safety personnel outdoors his mother and father’ house on Saturday, Oct. 29, the day after an intruder violently attacked Paul Pelosi on the house in San Francisco.
Stephen Lam/AP
In keeping with CNN, DePape posted hyperlinks on his Fb web page claiming the 2020 election was stolen and false claims that individuals are dying due to the COVID-19 vaccine. He additionally reportedly posted repeatedly concerning the Nice Reset, a conspiracy idea that the COVID-19 pandemic was deliberate and utilized by the worldwide elite to reorder society. The Nice Reset is invoked continually by Alex Jones, who was not too long ago ordered to pay greater than $1 billion in damages for spreading lies concerning the Sandy Hook college capturing.
Extremism researchers are discovering fashionable new-age beliefs are an increasing number of generally intersecting with far-right conspiracy theories. They already share some beliefs, like opposition to fashionable medication and mistrust of standard authority figures, and staunch anti-vaccination stances can lead some down the trail to extra radical beliefs.
DePape, who was born in Canada, is being held in a San Francisco County Jail on prices of tried homicide, battery, housebreaking and threatening a member of the family of a public official, amongst different crimes. He’s anticipated to be arraigned on Tuesday.
