Paul Pelosi is out of the hospital Thursday after being violently attacked at his California home.
CNN broke the news Thursday afternoon that Pelosi had been released from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, citing a source. Pelosi underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and injuries to his hand and arm. Pelosi’s release comes less than a week after an assailant broke into his home in the early morning hours and attacked him with a hammer.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) confirmed the news in a statement Thursday. “The Pelosi family is thankful for the beautiful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world,” Pelosi said. “Paul is grateful to the 911 operator, emergency responders, trauma care team, ICU staff, and the entire ZSFGH medical staff for their excellent and compassionate life-saving treatment he received after the violent assault in our home. Paul remains under doctors’ care as he continues to progress on a long recovery process and convalescence. He is now home surrounded by his family who request privacy.”
In a statement on Friday, Speaker Pelosi said that her husband was “receiving excellent medical care and is expected to make a full recovery.” In another statement Monday, she said that he was “making steady progress on what will be a long recovery process.”
Pelosi was hospitalized early Friday morning after an assailant broke into their San Francisco home and beat the 82-year-old businessman with a hammer while looking for the lawmaker, reports said. The House speaker was not at the couple’s $6 million townhouse when her husband was “violently assaulted,” according to a statement from her spokesman, Drew Hammill.
CNN reported that the assailant tried to tie Paul Pelosi up and repeatedly asked, “Where’s Nancy?” When the police arrived at the residence, the attacker said he was “waiting for Nancy,” the report said.
The U.S. Capitol Police, FBI, and San Francisco Police Department are conducting a joint investigation into the attack, according to the Capitol Police, which said in a statement that staff from the field office “quickly arrived on scene, while a team of investigators from the Department’s Threat Assessment Section was simultaneously dispatched from the East Coast to assist the FBI and the San Francisco Police with a joint investigation.”
The suspect accused of attacking Pelosi was described as a “former Castro nudist protester” and a “hemp jewelry maker” who posted conspiracy theories on a blog he authored. An exposé by author Michael Shellenberger further described him as a “homeless addict with a politics that was, until recently, left-wing, but of secondary importance to his psychotic and paranoid behavior.” He lived with a nudist at a homeless encampment in Berkeley, Shellenberger wrote.
The suspect was later revealed to be in the country illegally as well. Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported Monday afternoon: “Per ICE source, David DePape, the suspect accused of beating Paul Pelosi in his home with a hammer after breaking in, is currently in the U.S. illegally as a ‘longtime’ visa overstay.”
The suspect also has a previous history of sexual assault. A woman who describes herself as his daughter said Friday he molested her and her brothers when they were children.
Ben Zeisloft and Ryan Saavedra contributed to this report.
