Nicholas John Roske: Guilty Plea, 97-Month Sentence, and Appeal

Nicholas John Roske is the California man who traveled to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home in June 2022 intending to assassinate him, abandoned the plot after seeing a U.S. Marshal outside, and called 911 to turn himself in. He pleaded guilty in April 2025 to attempted assassination of a Supreme Court justice and was sentenced in October 2025 to 97 months in federal prison. The government has appealed the sentence to the Fourth Circuit, where the case remains pending.

What Happened Outside Justice Kavanaugh’s Home

Roske flew from Los Angeles to Dulles on June 7, 2022, and arrived by taxi at Justice Kavanaugh’s Maryland home at roughly 1:05 a.m. on June 8. He was carrying a Glock 17 pistol, two ten-round magazines, 17 additional rounds, a tactical knife, pepper spray, zip ties, duct tape, lock-pick tools, a crowbar, and hiking boots with padding on the soles to muffle his steps.¹²

When Roske saw a deputy U.S. Marshal stationed outside the residence, he walked past the house instead of approaching it. He spoke with his sister by phone for about 20 minutes, then called the Montgomery County Emergency Communications Center. On the 911 call, he told the dispatcher he was having suicidal and homicidal thoughts, that he had traveled from California to kill a Supreme Court justice, and that he needed psychiatric help and wanted to be “fully compliant.” He described his location and the gun he was carrying. Montgomery County police took him into custody nearby.³²

Why Roske Targeted Kavanaugh

Roske told investigators he was furious about a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion signaling the Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. He was also angry about the Uvalde school shooting days earlier and believed Justice Kavanaugh would vote to loosen gun restrictions.³

Prosecutors later said his plans went further. In encrypted messages from May 27, 2022, Roske wrote, “Im gonna stop roe v wade from being overturned,” and added, “I could get at least one, which would change the votes for decades to come. and I am shooting for 3.” The reasoning, according to the messages, was that removing conservative justices would let President Biden appoint more progressive replacements. Investigators recovered a map in Roske’s Google account with pins on the homes of four sitting justices and found searches on silent-kill methods, lock breaking, and countries without extradition treaties.² At the plea hearing, Roske disputed that he intended to target multiple justices, and the defense said it would raise the factual disagreement at sentencing.⁴

Who Nicholas Roske Is

Roske was born in 1996 and grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley. He attended Simi Valley High School, running cross-country before graduating in 2014, then earned a philosophy degree from California State University, Northridge in 2018, having also attended Moorpark Community College. He worked as an office manager at a Simi Valley pest control firm until quitting in 2021.⁵

He had a documented history of psychiatric hospitalizations. On the 911 call he said he had been “hospitalized several times” for psychiatric reasons. At an early court appearance, asked whether he was thinking clearly, he answered, “I think I have a reasonable understanding, but I wouldn’t say I’m thinking clearly.” By the 2025 plea hearing he told the judge he was being treated in jail for an unspecified mental illness but believed he was thinking clearly.⁵⁶

While the case was pending, Roske’s attorneys disclosed that their client identifies as a transgender woman and goes by Sophie Roske. Defense filings said Roske had struggled before the arrest with an inability to reveal that identity to family. At sentencing, Roske’s mother Colleen told the judge she and her husband had since learned things about their daughter “they never before knew, including her gender identity.”⁷

The Guilty Plea

Roske was charged under 18 U.S.C. § 351(c), which criminalizes an attempt to assassinate a Supreme Court justice, and under 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(A), covering attempts to kidnap or murder a federal judge.⁸ On April 8, 2025, he pleaded guilty to the attempted assassination charge without a plea agreement. The offense carried a maximum sentence of life in prison.⁶ The government’s sentencing memorandum asked for at least 30 years, arguing that the crime constituted an act of terrorism.⁹

The 97-Month Sentence

On October 3, 2025, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman of the District of Maryland sentenced Roske to 97 months, just over eight years, followed by a lifetime of supervised release.¹ That was well below the federal guidelines range of 30 years to life, and only one month longer than what the defense had proposed.¹⁰

Boardman rested the downward departure primarily on Roske’s decision to abandon the plot and call 911. “If she had not called 911, law enforcement would never have known about Sophie Roske and her plot,” the judge said. She called the case “atypical” and acknowledged the crime was “incredibly serious” and an “act of terrorism” that caused “real harm” and “anxiety” to the Kavanaugh family, but she found the 30-year request unreasonable. She also noted that Roske would be housed in a male-only Bureau of Prisons facility, citing an executive order by President Trump directing the federal government to house transgender women in men’s prisons.¹⁰¹¹

Prosecutors argued Roske changed course only because he saw the marshal, not out of remorse.¹² Roske apologized at the hearing to Justice Kavanaugh and his family “for the considerable distress I put them through,” and his parents also apologized.¹³ Justice Kavanaugh and his family did not submit victim impact statements or testify; a prosecutor confirmed at the hearing that “none of them will be testifying.”¹⁰

The Government’s Appeal

Attorney General Pamela Bondi called the sentence “woefully insufficient” and said the Department of Justice would appeal.¹ The government filed its notice of appeal on October 31, 2025, and the Fourth Circuit docketed the case as No. 25-4598 on November 6, 2025.¹⁴

The government’s opening brief was filed on June 22, 2026, with portions under seal. Two days later, America First Legal Foundation, the group founded by Stephen Miller, filed an amicus brief asking the Fourth Circuit to vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing. The brief argues that Boardman improperly considered Roske’s transgender identity and speculative concerns about prison housing as mitigating factors, in violation of federal sentencing rules that prohibit reliance on personal characteristics such as race, sex, or gender identity, and that the reduced sentence undermines deterrence and produces “unwarranted sentencing disparities.”¹⁵ Roske’s response brief is due in July 2026, and the appeal is pending.¹⁴

The sentence also drew calls in Congress for Boardman’s impeachment. Senator Ted Cruz, chairing a January 7, 2026 Judiciary subcommittee hearing titled “Impeachment: Holding Rogue Judges Accountable,” said the sentence was “so drastically out of step with the gravity of the offense” that it warranted impeachment and wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson urging articles of impeachment. As of mid-2026, no formal impeachment proceedings had been initiated, and Johnson has remained noncommittal.¹⁶¹⁷

The Security Law Passed After the Arrest

Roske’s arrest pushed Congress to move on a bill already sitting in the House. The Supreme Court Police Parity Act, sponsored by Senators John Cornyn and Chris Coons, had passed the Senate by unanimous consent in May 2022. After the arrest, the House approved it on June 14, 2022, and President Biden signed it into law on June 16, 2022, as Public Law 117-148. The law lets the Marshal of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court Police extend protection to the immediate family of any justice or Court officer when the Marshal determines it is necessary.¹⁸¹⁹

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Nicholas Roske Sentenced to Over Eight Years in Prison for Attempted Murder of Supreme Court Justice
2
CBS News. Nicholas Roske Brett Kavanaugh Sentencing
3
NBC News. Man With Gun at Kavanaugh’s Home Told 911 He Needed Psychiatric Help
4
Politico. Brett Kavanaugh Assassination Attempt Plea
5
Los Angeles Times. Nicholas Roske Profile
6
KCRA. California Man Pleads Guilty in Justice Kavanaugh Attempted Murder
7
CNN. Kavanaugh Roske Sentenced
8
CourtListener. United States v. Roske – Parties
9
U.S. Department of Justice. Department of Justice Issues Sentencing Memo
10
Politico. Kavanaugh Assassin Sentencing
11
NBC News. Woman Sentenced to 8 Years for Attempting to Assassinate Brett Kavanaugh
12
Roll Call. Judge Gives 8-Year Sentence in Brett Kavanaugh Assassination Plot
13
Spectrum News. Sentencing in Kavanaugh Assassination Attempt
14
CourtListener. United States v. Nicholas Roske – Fourth Circuit
15
America First Legal Foundation. AFL Urges Fourth Circuit to Vacate Reduced Sentence for Attempted Kavanaugh Assassin
16
Courthouse News Service. Senate Judiciary Clashes Over Judicial Impeachments, Rising Threats Against Judges
17
Sen. Ted Cruz. Sen. Cruz Chairs Hearing on Judicial Overreach, Urges Impeachment of Judges Boasberg and Boardman
18
Congress.gov. S. 4160 – Supreme Court Police Parity Act of 2022
19
NBC News. House Votes on Senate-Passed Bill to Provide Security to Supreme Court Justices