DOJ seeks at least 30 years for Supreme Court assassination plot

Ryan Tarinelli, CQ-Roll Call on Sep 19, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors on Friday said a man who pleaded guilty in a plot to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh should receive a prison sentence of 30 years to life.

Nicholas Roske, who was arrested after authorities said they found him near Kavanaugh’s Maryland residence in June 2022, has pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate a justice of the United States.

Roske, according to an affidavit, told a detective he was upset about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and the leak of a draft Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Federal prosecutors, in a filing Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, said the court’s sentence must be significant “to send the message that the consequences for these acts — no fewer than 30 years to life in prison — are not worth the perceived ideological ends.”

“This Court’s sentence must send the unequivocal, clear, and strong message that attempted violence and threats of violence against members of the judiciary — as well as other public and federal officials — cannot and will not be tolerated, and will be justly and severely condemned,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

The sentence, according to the prosecutors, must send a strong message that condemns Roske’s actions and deters others from turning to violence and threats based on disagreement with rulings from the judiciary.

The government also argued the crime was not a snap decision or “a bad judgment in a moment of weakness.”

“The defendant’s crime was considered, planned, targeted, and callously indifferent to others’ lives and the impact on their families,” according to the filing.

According to authorities, Roske said he flew from Los Angeles to the Washington, D.C. area in June 2022 with the intent to kill Kavanaugh and then himself.

After arriving in the D.C. area, Roske took a taxi to the Maryland neighborhood where Kavanaugh lived, exited the vehicle close to the justice’s residence but instead turned to walk away from the house, according to authorities.

“The defendant’s attack was disrupted only by the presence of law enforcement guarding the residence,” prosecutors wrote in the Friday filing. “Judicial officials should not have to employ around-the-clock armed protection to be safely free to conduct their work.”

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