Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), arrives for a reception honoring Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his wife Mareva Mitsotakis within the East Room of the White House on May 16, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was “violently assaulted” by an assailant who broke into the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday morning, the speaker’s office said in a press release.
“The assailant is in custody and the motivation for the attack is under investigation,” read the statement from Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.
Paul Pelosi, 82, “was taken to the hospital, where he’s receiving excellent medical care and is anticipated to make a full recovery. The Speaker was not in San Francisco on the time,” Hammill said.
The San Francisco Police Department didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s inquiries.
It isn’t the primary time the Democratic House speaker, also 82, has been targeted with threats.
A North Carolina man, Cleveland Meredith, was sentenced last December to 28 months in prison after pleading guilty to threatening to shoot Pelosi. Meredith, 53, had traveled to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, planning to attend rallies on that day, but didn’t arrive until the evening, when the pro-Trump riot on the U.S. Capitol had been tamped down.
One other man, 77-year-old Steven Martis of Arizona, was sentenced in February to 21 months behind bars for threatening to kill Pelosi in messages to her D.C. office.
The attack on Paul Pelosi comes because the U.S. Capitol Police record a drastic rise in threat cases — a 144% increase from 2017 to 2021, in keeping with the department.
That is breaking news. Please check back for updates.