Greenbelt, Maryland — Nicholas Roske, who pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, was sentenced on Friday to over eight years in prison.
Judge Deborah Boardman, a Biden appointee, said it is important to send a message to people who are considering harming judges over disagreements with their decisions, especially now when threats are at an “all time high.”
“[Roske’s] actions before her self-reporting of this crime were extremely serious, were properly prosecuted, and a significant sentence of incarceration is necessary to promote respect for the law,” Boardman said. “Political violence, even unexecuted plans of political violence, must be prosecuted and punished.”
Roske’s 97-month sentence will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
The government asked for a 30-year sentence to send “the unequivocal, clear, and strong message” that attempted violence against the judiciary and public officials will not be tolerated. Attorney General Pam Bondi responded Friday by saying that the Department of Justice (DOJ) “will be appealing the woefully insufficient sentence imposed by the district court, which does not reflect the horrific facts of this case.”
On June 8, 2022, Roske was arrested with burglary tools and a firearm outside Kavanaugh’s Maryland home after placing a call to 911, telling the dispatcher he came from California to kill the justice and himself. A draft of the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade had leaked just a month prior.
“I have been portrayed as a monster and this tragic mistake that I made will follow me for the rest of my life,” Roske told the judge, apologizing to Kavanaugh, to his family and “for contributing to the fear judges experience.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Coreen Mao told the judge Roske posed a “very real threat to the justice’s life” and “to our constitution.”
Mao argued Roske only changed his course of action because law enforcement was present at Kavanaugh’s residence, highlighting how he spent a month acquiring supplies, conducting research and discussing the impact of an assassination on the Supreme Court with friends.
“[Y]eah but i could get at least one, which would change the votes for decades to come,” Roske told a friend in a May 2022 Discord message. “[A]nd I am shooting for 3.”
Defense attorneys highlighted how Roske did not go through with his actions. “It’s not who she is,” defense attorney Andrew Szekely said.
“What makes this case unique isn’t that he [Kavanaugh] was a prominent political figure, but that she [Roske] stopped,” Szekely said.
“Judges aren’t political,” Boardman interjected.
In a Sept. 19 filing, Roske’s attorneys first revealed he identifies as a woman, informing the judge they would “refer to her as Sophie and use female pronouns” moving forward.
During the proceedings, Boardman also identified Roske using female pronouns. She questioned whether prisons are properly equipped to treat mentally ill prisoners and probed how Roske would be treated as a “transgender woman.”
Ultimately, Boardman concluded that the presence of law enforcement was not the sole reason Roske didn’t go through with his plan. It was “truly remarkable” that after a phone call with his sister, Roske called 911 and confessed on his own, Boardman said.
“I have never heard of another criminal defendant doing that,” she said.
Boardman also took into consideration the “difficult” conditions of Roske’s pre-trial confinement, that Roske could be sent to a male-only facility as a “transgender woman” and that he has never served a prison sentence before.
Roske’s sister, father and mother provided emotional testimony about his mental health and character. Other family members planned to attend but could not due to a medical emergency.
His mother described Roske’s long history of mental health issues, starting with a suicide attempt in 2015 and a seizure in 2016. During COVID-19, Roske’s mother said he cut them out of his treatment.
“We should have listened more,” he mother said. “She was frustrated with what was going on in the world, and we weren’t really a safe place for her to process that.”
In a letter to the judge, Roske said he did not tell his parents about his gender identity at the time “due to their conservative views.”
Roske’s sister highlighted their close relationship as siblings and shared “experiences finding our identities in the LGBTQ community.”
“Instead of being met with treatment after this crisis, Sophie has been met with punishment,” her sister said. “She made the right choice in a difficult moment, yet she is being penalized for it, which is not how I view justice.”
(Featured Image Media Credit: Anthony Quintano/Wikimedia Commons)
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