Emotional Nancy Pelosi says husband’s recovery from attack could take ‘three or four months’ to be himself

The man accused of breaking into the Pelosi home and fracturing Paul’s skull will return to court in February

Nearly three months after her husband was struck in the head with a hammer, now-former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it may take “three or four months” for him to return to himself.

The California congresswoman and one of the longest-serving speakers of the House of Representatives told host Chris Wallace on his HBO Max show Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? this week: “Anyone who’s had a head injury knows that you have to be very careful. You have to be careful about movement. You have to be careful about light, you have to be careful about sound and it just takes a while, probably another three or four months, according to the doctors, for him to be really himself.”

David DePape, the man accused of breaking into the Pelosi household on 28 October and striking her 82-year-old husband Paul in the head with a hammer, reportedly told police he broke into the home over “insane” lies in Washington DC, blaming Hillary Clinton and claiming that Democrats were responsible for crimes against Donald Trump.

Police body-camera footage and a recording of Mr DePape’s interview after his arrest were played in San Francisco Superior Court last month during a preliminary hearing in the case.

“I’m not trying to get away with it. I know exactly what I did,” he said during the interview.

“The lies are insane,” he continued. “People in Washington. It originates with Hillary. Honestly, day in and day out, the person on TV lying every day was [Nancy] Pelosi. It’s f****** insane, the crime spree the Democrats have been on, persecuting the rival campaign.”

The recording appeared to corroborate earlier filings and a federal criminal complaint that detailed the night of the attack, which cited Mr DePape’s subsequent police interviews, footage from body cameras and Mr Pelosi’s call to 911. Despite court documents and the suspect’s own apparent admission, the case continues to be the subject of rampant conspiracy theories and baseless speculation.

In her interview with Mr Wallace, which aired on 20 January, an emotional Ms Pelosi said Paul is “doing OK” but “it’s gonna take a little while for him to be back to normal.”

“I feel very sad about it because of what happened, but also more sad because the person was searching for me,” she said. “And my dear husband, who is not even that political actually, paid the price. He’s been out a bit because the doctor said he has to have something to look forward to. And so, again, one day at a time.”

Mr DePape has pleaded not guilty to several state and federal charges against him, which include assault, attempted murder, attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault of an immediate family member of a federal official.

He is scheduled to return to San Francisco Superior Court in February.