PUBLICLY RELEASED VIDEO shows the husband of former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi fighting with an attacker for control of a hammer moments before he was struck during a brutal attack in the couple’s home last year.

Police bodycam footage shows suspect David DePape wrest the tool from 82-year-old Paul Pelosi and lunge towards him with the hammer over his head at the property in San Francisco.

The blow occurs out of view of the camera and the officers — one of them cursing — rush into the house and jump on DePape.

Mr Pelosi, apparently unconscious, can be seen lying face down on the floor in his pyjama top and underwear. Officials later said he woke up in a pool of his own blood.

The release of the video came after news agencies including the Associated Press sought access to the evidence that prosecutors played in open court last month. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office had refused to make the exhibits available to journalists.

A state court judge on Wednesday ruled there was no reason to keep the video secret.

The evidence includes portions of Mr Pelosi’s 911 call on October 28, as well as video images from Capitol Police surveillance cameras, a body camera worn by one of the two police officers who arrived at the house and a nearly 18-minute audio recording from DePape’s interview with police.

The Capitol Police video shows DePape walk up to a glass door, leave and then return wearing a large backpack and carrying two other bags. He sets all the items down and pulls out a hammer, pausing to put on gloves, and uses it to smash the door glass so he could step through an opening.

DePape has pleaded not guilty in ongoing state and federal cases. He is being held in jail without bail on charges including attempted murder, elder abuse and assaulting an immediate family member of a federal official.

Members of Congress have faced a sharp rise in threats in the two years since the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 2021.