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Man charged in Paul Pelosi attack details descent into conspiracy theories during federal trial

Los Angeles Times

David DePape, the man accused of attempting to kidnap former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacking her husband last year after breaking into the couple's home, detailed his descent into political extremism and belief in conspiracy theories during his testimony Tuesday in the federal trial against him. DePape, 43, explained that long before he broke into the Pelosis' San Francisco home in the early morning of Oct. 28, 2022, with plans to get the lawmaker to fess up to corruption within the Democratic Party, he considered himself to be left-leaning politically. He thought Sept. 11 was an "inside job" during former President George W. Bush's tenure in the White House, he said, and at one point he maintained a "very strong anti-Trump bias," believing the former president was a puppet of the ruling class and Wall Street. That all changed as DePape spent entire days on the internet watching YouTube and listening to right-leaning political podcasts while playing video games in a garage he called home in Richmond, north of Oakland. His favorite podcasters included right-wing pundit Tim Pool and James Lindsay, a conservative influencer that the nonprofit advocacy organization Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a promoter of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and "conspiracy theories about the supposed communist takeover of the world."