US Capitol Police officers reportedly stopped monitoring video feed capturing Pelosi attack

Capitol Police had live video surveillance outside Nancy Pelosi’s $6million home when a crazed man allegedly attacked the Speaker’s husband with a hammer – but weren’t watching it when the strike took place due to lack of manpower.

Instead, after Pelosi left San Francisco last week for a trip to D.C., officers in Washington stopped monitoring the 24/7 feed, it’s been revealed – ignoring a crucial vantage point right outside the politician’s house.

If officers had been watching the feed in real-time, the break-in would have been seen – leading to questions about the municipality’s short-staffed force, who are responsible for the safety of 535 members of Congress. 

On Tuesday, a filing revealed the suspect, a fringe activist drawn to several conspiracy theories, had plans to target other politicians as well, and was arrested carrying a list with the names of prominent state and federal politicians – and members of their families.

David DePape, 42, faces several felony charges including attempted murder in relation to the incident – which left Paul Pelosi, 82, with a fractured skull and other unspecified injuries, and would have seen his wife targeted had she been home.

The revelation came the same day prosecutors claimed in court that the man who allegedly carried out the attack last Friday had been on a ‘suicide mission,’ with Pelosi being his intended target.

However, upon realizing the politician was absent, rumored right-wing extremist DePape let his aggression out on her husband, who answered the door only to be hit by the suspect at least once with a hammer. 

Pelosi subsequently suffered as of now unspecified injuries that saw him hospitalized and undergo emergency surgery, following what officials have since asserted was a premeditated attack.

Capitol Police first installed cameras around Pelosi’s home more than eight years ago, with an around-the-clock security detail enlisted to protect her ever since.

In the months after the attacks of January 6, 2021, a San Francisco police cruiser was stationed indefinitely outside the Speaker’s home in ritzy Pacific Heights, seven days a week, day and night.

But hours after Pelosi left San Francisco last week and returned to D.C., her security detail apparently left with her – and more importantly, officers in Washington stopped continuously monitoring the live feed outside her house. 

Sources familiar with Capitol practices has since said that it is common for Capitol Police to pay less attention to security cameras when one of its protectees is away – a sentiment seemingly confirmed by San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins during a press conference on Tuesday.

‘There was no security present,’ Jenkins said, responding to the question from a reporter.

The lack of full-time, active surveillance – particularly at the home of a polarizing member of Congress with the dubious distinction of bearing the most death threats – reflects the state of the district’s embattled police force, which has been stretched increasingly thin in the nearly two years since the attack on the Capitol.

Since then, Capitol Police have been working to implement more than 100 improvements to its security practices recommended by outside analysts, including enhancements to officer training, protocols, and staffing. 

At the same time, the department – one of the most well-funded and well-staffed police departments relative to the two square miles it guards – has faced a tenfold increase in threats to members of Congress, with Pelosi, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, leading the pack of potential targets.

The force currently boasts an annual budget of more than $515 million, and it employs more than 2,000 sworn and civilian personnel. Roughly 70 left the force as a result of vaccine requirements and restrictions during the pandemic.

In a statement Tuesday, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said that while the department is on track to hire 280 additional officers this year, the country’s current ‘political climate’ will require ‘additional layers of physical security.’

Without specifying what type of prospective amendments the force might make, Manger said the department would emphasize adding ‘redundancies’ to the measures that are already in place to protect congressional leaders.

In order for them the be effective, the top cop said, those changes need to remain confidential. 

The FBI, meanwhile, continues to seek hundreds of suspects in the January 6 attacks – an unprecedented probe labeled ‘the biggest manhunt in history.’ 

The sprawling investigation, which feds say is being scrutinized by agents in all 50 states, has already yielded more than 700 arrests.  

Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that his office would hold all of those responsible for the riot accountable whatever the cost, whether they were actually present or committed other crimes surrounding the day’s events.

So far, 250 people seen on video assaulting police at the Capitol haven’t been fully identified and apprehended, while another 100 are being sought for other crimes related to the coordinated attack. 

Agents and investigative analysts have been poring over thousands of hours of surveillance video, going second by second in each video to capture clear images of people who attacked officers inside and outside the site’s main structure.

Capitol police, meanwhile, have been carrying out their own, internal investigation, looking into the response of officers stationed outside and near the building when it was stormed by thousands of supporters of ex-President Donald Trump. 

‘This investigation takes time because it is a lot of work, a lot of painstaking work that they look at the video kind of frame by frame,’ Steven D’Antuono, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s field office in Washington, said of the ongoing efforts.

Of the attack on the Pelosi residence, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said the strike, which easily could have burgeoned into a full-fledged assassination, served as ‘an alarming reminder of the dangerous threats elected officials and public figures face during today’s contentious political climate.’  

DePape, an illegal immigrant from Canada, is accused of breaking into the Pelosi home and beating Paul Pelosi over the head with a hammer and intending to hold his House Speaker wife Nancy hostage and break her kneecaps. 

Jenkins said Paul Pelosi was asleep in a loose-fitting pajama shirt and a pair of boxer shorts when he was awoken by DePape around 2:30 am, who knocked on the family’s door asking for ‘Nancy.’

At some point during the ordeal, Paul Pelosi attempted to escape into an elevator to call 911. When that avenue was closed off to him, he did manage to get to a bathroom where he was able to call the police. 

DePape was listening in on the phone call, and knew police were going to arrive, according to FBI interrogators, but ‘explained that he did not leave after Pelosi’s call to 9-1-1 because, much like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender.’ 

According to the criminal complaint, the day after the attack, authorities traced DePape to a home on Shasta Road in Richmond, California, around 18 miles north of San Francisco. 

The home belongs to renowned Bay Area photographer Malcolm Lubliner who served as DePape’s landlord. DePape lived at the address for two years. 

Investigators said that inside of the home, they found additional hammers, a sword, and pairs of gloves. 

The 42-year-old defendant, whose shoulder was dislocated during his arrest, is scheduled to return to court Friday.