The California man who attempted to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh following the leak of an opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was sentenced to eight years and one month in federal prison Friday, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
The sentence imposed upon Nicholas Roske — who now identifies as a trans woman named “Sophie” — by Biden-appointed federal judge Deborah Boardman, amounted to a defeat for federal prosecutors, who had requested that Roske be sentenced to 30 years to life. Roske’s defense team had asked for an eight-year sentence and 25 years of supervised release.
“The defendant’s actions and intent — which were determined, focused, and undeterred for months — were extremely dangerous to the lives of multiple sitting judges, their family members, and the Constitutional judicial order,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo filed Sept. 26.
“The sentence imposed in this case must send the powerful message, both to the defendant and to others who contemplate committing assassination to obstruct judicial independence, that these ends never justify the means and that the consequences are not worth engaging in these acts.”
Roske was arrested outside Kavanaugh’s Maryland home in June 2022, carrying a Glock 17 pistol, ammunition, a tactical light, zip ties, pepper spray and burglary tools. He told investigators he planned to kill the justice after the Supreme Court’s draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health was published the previous April by Politico.
The then-26-year-old took a taxi from Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia to Kavanaugh’s Chevy Chase residence around 1 a.m. — but apparently abandoned his plan after noticing two U.S. Marshals Service deputies guarding justice’s home.
Instead of approaching the house, Roske kept walking down the street and took a phone call from a relative.
Moments later, Roske dialed 911, reported having suicidal and homicidal thoughts and asked for psychiatric help.
The defendant apologized in court to Kavanaugh, the justice’s family and other members of the high court for the fear he inflicted.
“I have been portrayed as a monster, and this tragic mistake that I made will follow me for the rest of my life,” Roske said.
In a written letter to the court, the would-be assassin also apologized “for contributing to a trend of political violence in American politics. I can see now how destructive and misguided such acts are, and am ashamed to have not recognized these things sooner.”
The prosecution’s memo claimed that Roske had searched for information about three Supreme Court justices “over 60 times” and “researched guns and purchasing guns over 100 times.”
Assassinating one of the justices could change the decisions of the nine-member high court “for decades to come,” Roske wrote over an encrypted messaging platform to another user in May 2022, according to prosecutors.
Roske further declared, “I am shooting for 3,” confessing elsewhere that “the thought of Roe v Wade and gay marriage both being repealed has me furious.”
The Simi Valley native further conducted internet searches about how to “avoid leaving evidence,” the “insanity defense,” and “how are mass murderers treated in prison,” and texted a family member during the taxi ride to Kavanaugh’s residence “believing that it would be the last communication before committing heinous acts,” prosecutors said.
Defense attorneys argued in a dueling sentencing memo filled with letters from family members that the judge should go easy on Roske, citing the would-be assassin’s “voluntary disclosure of the offense, peaceful surrender, and post-arrest cooperation with law enforcement.”
That memo also cited Roske’s “history of mental illness” and the “harshness of the conditions of confinement” in a federal prison due to policies “regarding transgender inmates.”
Last month, the defendant’s legal team began referring to their client as “Sophie Roske” — despite there being no legal change to Nicholas Roske’s name — and used female pronouns in court documents.
According to the filing, Roske suffered “major depression” after graduating high school in 2014 and made at least one suicide attempt. The suspect’s condition allegedly worsened after they stopped seeing their therapist in March 2020, “when the Covid-19 pandemic made in-person visits impossible,” and Roske purportedly was “acutely suicidal” at the time of the plot to kill Kavanaugh.
“The plan to kill [Kavanaugh], which included her purchasing burglary tools and firearm, was secondary to her months-long desire to kill herself,” Roske’s lawyers wrote.
During Friday’s sentencing hearing, Boardman questioned whether Roske as “a transgender woman” would be able to receive hormone therapy or “be assigned to a facility according to the gender of their birth” due to one of President Trump’s executive orders, The Daily Caller reported.
Defense lawyers said Roske came out as a transgender woman in 2020 but kept it secret from family members and began undergoing gender-reassignment procedures while incarcerated.
With Post wires
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