Paul Pelosi’s alleged attacker told a 911 operator he was a “friend” of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband moments before he attacked the 82-year-old with a hammer this past October, chilling audio released Friday revealed.
“Uh, yeah, he says he’s a friend, but as I said, I don’t know him,” Paul Pelosi told the operator after the attacker, David DePape, made the claim.
The nearly three-minute call was made public Friday after a judge ordered the release of material — including police body camera footage and audio of DePape’s initial interview with investigators — at the request of news organizations.
As the conversation begins, Paul Pelosi appeared to play cool by telling DePape that he “must have called” the San Francisco Police by accident.
He then told the 911 operator, identified as Heather Grimes, that there was a “gentleman just waiting for my wife to come back — Nancy Pelosi.”
“Uh, he’s just, uh, waiting for her to come back, but she’s not gonna be here for days so I guess we’ll have to wait,” Paul Pelosi stammered.
DePape’s voice can be heard mumbling in the background throughout the 911 call. He also came to the phone twice — to state his first name and to make the friendship claim.
During the call, Paul Pelosi asked Grimes: “Is the Capitol Police around? They’re usually here at the house protecting my wife.”
When Grimes tells him he’s reached a number for San Francisco police, Pelosi says: “No, I understand. OK, well …” before asking DePape, “I don’t know, what do you think?”
Apparently confused, the 911 operator tells the two to “call us back if you need anything.”
“No, no, no,” Pelosi responds. “This gentleman just came into the house and wants to wait here until my wife comes home and, anyway, he’s telling me to put the phone down.”
He then said he did not know the intruder, adding that “he’s telling me not to do anything.”
“Anyway, this gentleman says that he thinks everything ought to — he’s telling me to put the phone down and, uh, just do what he says,” he added.
Moments later, the congresswoman’s husband tells the operator that the intruder was telling him to get off the phone.
“He’s telling me I’m being very leading, so I gotta stop talking to you, OK?” he stammered.
When Grimes offered to stay on the phone “just to make sure everything’s OK,” Pelosi responded: “No, he’s telling me to get the hell off the phone. OK?”
“OK,” Grimes responded.
Pelosi then thanked her and hung up the phone.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters at the Capitol Friday afternoon that she has “absolutely no intention of seeing the deadly assault on my husband’s life.”
“I have not heard the 911 call. I have not heard the confession. I have not seen the break-in,” the former House speaker said, adding that she will not “be making any more statements about this case as it proceeds.”
Pelosi also gave a brief update on Paul’s recovery since the vicious attack, saying he’s “making progress, but it’ll take more time.”