Accused Pelosi attacker will use trial to push QAnon conspiracies in court: Legal analyst

The man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi in the San Francisco home he shares with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is avoiding an insanity defense, despite his lawyer saying he was a believer in far-right conspiracy theories.

Opening statements began in the case this week and, speaking with MSNBC's Chris Jansing, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner argued the accused, David DePape has another goal in mind.

"I think what this defendant at his core might be trying to do is simply use this trial as a vehicle, as a platform to get his political views out there," Kirschner said. "And I don't think it's going to end well for him."

Jansing noted that those political views include ties to the conspiracy group QAnon.

"This is another instance, prosecutors say, of someone who spent a lot of time online with conspiracies, not just Pizza Gate, which is this fake child sex ring, but Holocaust deniers and QAnon," said Jansing.

"So, if not a form of an insanity plea, do they at least argue to a jury he couldn't have been in his right mind, even an experienced police officer, a lieutenant, thought something was amiss here?"

Kirschner said few defense options were open to DePape, but he didn't use any of them.

"He could have claimed he was not competent to stand trial. He was suffering from some sort of a mental problem, a psychiatric deficiency that made him not competent to stand trial," said Kirschner. "He didn't go that route. He could have gone insanity, a defense where you're competent to stand trial, but basically, you can't tell right from wrong or conform your conduct to the requirements of the law. He's going neither of those two routes. His lawyers said, and this is a quote from her opening statement: 'The defendant fell prey to the disinformation ecosystem.' That's not a defense."

The defense is also trying to say that DePape wasn't motivated by the fact that Pelosi was a federal official, but that he was angry about conspiracies in Washington.

"The problem, Chris, is when he was interrogated by police, he said that he was going after Nancy Pelosi and wanted to kidnap her because she is the leader of the pack of lies told by the Democratic Party," recalled Kirschner. "I think what this defendant at his core might be trying to do is simply use this trial as a vehicle, as a platform to get his political views out there, and I don't think it's going to end well for him."

Jansing went on to quote the lieutenant questioning DePape in the video, released by the prosecutors and police. The lieutenant asked if DePape was on any medication because what DePape said "was so jarring and disturbing."

Kirschner explained that the defense could argue DePape wasn't in his right mind but might not be allowed to without making an official insanity defense or having the judge declare him insane.

See the full explainer in the video below or at the link here.

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