Would-be Kavanaugh assassin was ‘furious’ over pending Roe repeal
Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Shortly after turning 26 and seeking purpose in his life, Nicholas Roske searched online for answers.
Assassin equipment … How to be stealthy … Supreme court …
“The thought of Roe v Wade and gay marriage both being repealed,” he wrote in an online message, “has me furious.”
The mindset and research, federal prosecutors assert, fueled a plot that Roske admitted to in court Tuesday: The intended killing of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh inside his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, three years ago.
The California resident pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate a justice of the Supreme Court. He faces possible decades in prison at his sentencing, set for Oct. 3 in U.S. District Court in Maryland. In new court filings, prosecutors say Roske’s punishment should be enhanced because his actions amounted to terrorism.
Their filings describe how Roske had contemplated killing other Supreme Court justices. “I could get at least one, which would change the votes for decades to come,” he wrote online to an associate in 2022, “and I am shooting for 3.”
In his targeting of Kavanaugh, prosecutors say, Roske arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on June 7, 2022, and completed the requisite forms to transport an unloaded firearm in his checked suitcase to Dulles International Airport. Also in his luggage: a black face mask, a lockpick set, a crowbar, 37 rounds of ammunition, a tactical knife, pepper spray, boots with padded bottoms for stealth movement and a tactical flashlight with a laser that could be mounted onto his pistol.
After landing, Roske took a cab to Kavanaugh’s neighborhood—he had the address from online research—and got out onto the justice’s narrow, leafy dark street at 1:05 a.m. Roske spotted two deputy U.S. Marshals guarding the house, turned and walked away. He then spoke on the phone with his sister, who was returning a text he’d sent. She persuaded him to call 911 and turn himself in. He was arrested about two blocks from Kavanaugh’s home by Montgomery County police.
Kavanaugh was not in court Tuesday, but at one point, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman asked prosecutors if they had kept the victim in the case apprised of the hearing, as is standard practice, and the prosecutors said they had.
Roske, who has been detained since his arrest in 2022, arrived in court wearing bright yellow prison clothes. He politely answered questions from Boardman designed in part to confirm he understood what he was doing. When asked about whether he was being treated for mental health issues, Roske replied, “Yes, I’m currently being treated for mental illness.”
Last week, Roske’s attorneys filed court papers acknowledging their client’s guilt and admissions—going back to the night of his arrest: “Once in custody, Mr. Roske told law enforcement officers that he had traveled from California to Maryland with the intent to kill the Associate Justice and then himself.”
After Tuesday’s hearing, the attorneys declined to say what they will present at sentencing. But in a statement they said Roske is continuing to take responsibility for his conduct.
“Mr. Roske’s accountability began on June 8, 2022, when, in the throes of a mental health crisis, he called 911, told police where he was and what he was doing and asked for help,” said the attorneys, assistant federal public defenders Andrew Szekely and Ellie Marranzini. “After his call, Mr. Roske cooperated with the authorities to ensure he was safely taken into custody. We look forward to addressing further details about the case at sentencing.”
In court filings last week, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Coreen Mao and Thomas Sullivan wrote that federal sentencing guidelines, state that Roske should receive a sentence that equates to 30 years to life in prison. Part of their argument, they asserted, was that Roske’s actions constituted “a felony that involved, or was intended to promote, a federal crime of terrorism.”
In a statement after the hearing Tuesday, Attorney General Pamela Bondi called the case an “attack on the Court itself.”
“Anyone who thinks they can use violence or intimidation to influence our courts will be met with the full force of the law and face up to life in prison,” Bondi added.
The elements of the case, prosecutors wrote, stretched back to at least spring 2022, when “Roske developed a plan to assassinate one or more Associate Justices of the Supreme Court.”
“In furtherance of that plan,” the prosecutors added, “Roske conducted multiple searches on the internet between about April 20, 2022, and June 5, 2022, for the residential addresses of the associate justices and for information on firearms, techniques for breaking and entering a residence, ways to avoid detection, stabbing a person, especially in the neck, strangulation, killing a person in a quiet manner, and how to travel by air with weapons.”
And the prosecutors ticked off a series of activities, searches and purchases that Roske made.
On May 25, 2022, he bought from an online retailer shooting glasses, hearing protection, tactical gloves and other items.
Two days later, he spoke in an online chat with an associate.
“Im gonna stop roe v wade from being overturned,” he wrote, according to prosecutors.
“What u tryna do,” the associate asked.
“Remove some people from the Supreme Court,” Roske allegedly responded.
He wrote about what could happen afterward: “At the end of the day, biden still chooses the replacements. gop cant do s— about it.”
That same day, according to prosecutors, Roske bought a lockpick. Two days after that, he purchased “non-slip grip socks, black body and face paint, black duct tape, a glass cutter and a heavy-duty suction cup.” Then on June 2, 2022, Roske bought a Glock 9mm pistol, taking it to a shooting range the next day for practice.
By the time he boarded his Dulles-bound flight on June 7, 2022, Roske not only had his luggage packed with break-in tools and a firearm, but he had “also saved a map on his Google account that contained location pins marking the residential addresses of associate justices in Maryland and northern Virginia.” The other justices have not been named publicly.
Had Roske gone to trial, the proceeding could have turned on what “substantial steps” he took to carry out his plan, according to experts on federal criminal law, who said that prosecutors could have argued that taking a cross-country flight with a gun in a suitcase, for example, constituted a substantial step.
In a letter filed last week, Roske’s attorneys acknowledged that his client had intended to kill Kavanaugh and took a substantial step toward doing so.
Earlier court filings included transcripts of Roske being interviewed by Montgomery County detectives and FBI agents.
“What was your plan?” a Montgomery detective asked.
“Break in,” Roske replied. “Shoot him and then shoot myself.”
“I was under the delusion,” Roske added, “that I could make the world a better place by killing him.”
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