Pelosi attacker spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, denied Holocaust

David DePape’s social media activity included posts blaming Jews for the war in Ukraine, denying the Holocaust, questioning the results of the 2020 election and echoing various QAnon conspiracy theories.

By Associated Press

The man accused of breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s California home and severely beating her husband with a hammer appears to have made antisemitic and often rambling posts online.

A look at 42-year-old David DePape’s social media posts included some that blamed Jews for the war in Ukraine, denied the Holocaust, defended Kanye West, questioned the results of the 2020 election and echoed various QAnon conspiracy theories.

The suspect grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, before leaving about 20 years ago to follow an older girlfriend to San Francisco. A street address listed for DePape in the Bay Area college town of Berkeley led to a post office box at a UPS Store.

DePape was arrested at the Pelosi home early Friday after attacking the Speaker of the House’s husband, Paul, with a hammer. Mrs. Pelosi was in Washington D.C. at the time. Her 82-year-old husband is hospitalized but expected to recover.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said she expected to file multiple felony charges, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and elder abuse.

A pair of web blogs posted in recent months online under the name David DePape contained rants about technology, aliens, communists, religious minorities and global elites.

In one social media post blaming Jews for the war in Ukraine, DePape wrote, “That’s some pretty sick Jewing going on if true,” said a post from Monday featuring an antisemitic caricature of a Jew. “Bomb the country into sh*t so the residents leave. Buy the land up for cheap.”

The next day, DePape posted, “The more Ukrainians die NEEDLESSLY the cheaper the land will be for Jews to buy up.”

An Aug. 24 entry titled “Q,” displayed a scatological collection of memes that included photos of the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and made reference to QAnon, the baseless pro-Trump conspiracy theory that espouses the belief that the country is run by a deep state cabal of child sex traffickers, satanic pedophiles and baby-eating cannibals.

“Big Brother has deemed doing your own research as a thought crime,” read a post that appeared to blend references to QAnon with George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”

In an Aug. 25 entry titled “Gun Rights,” the poster wrote: “You no longer have rights. Your basic human rights hinder Big Brothers ability to enslave and control you in a complete and totalizing way.”

The web hosting service WordPress removed one of the sites Friday afternoon for violating its terms of service.

On a different site, someone posting under DePape’s name repeated false claims about COVID vaccines and wearing masks, questioned whether climate change is real and displayed an illustration of a zombified Hillary Clinton dining on human flesh.

There appeared to be no direct posts about Pelosi, but there were entries defending former President Donald Trump and Ye, the rapper formally known as Kayne West who recently made antisemitic comments.

In other posts, the writer said Jews helped finance Hitler’s political rise in Germany and suggested an antisemitic plot was involved in Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.

In a Sept. 27 post, the writer said any journalists who denied Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election “should be dragged straight out into the street and shot.”

DePape was known in Berkeley as a pro-nudity activist who had picketed naked at protests against local ordinances requiring people to be clothed in public.

Stepfather Gene DePape said the suspect had lived with him in Canada until he was 14, but he had not seen his stepson since 2003.

“In 2007, I tried to get in touch but his girlfriend hung up on me when I asked to talk to him,“ Gene DePape said.

Gene DePape said the girlfriend whom his son followed to California was named Gypsy and they had two children together. DePape also has a child with a different woman, his stepfather said.

World Israel News staff contributed to this report.