The California man who allegedly attempted to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his Maryland home before backing out of the plan nearly three years ago will plead guilty to the charge levied against him, his lawyers said Wednesday.
Nicholas Roske was arrested near the Supreme Court justice’s home in Chevy Chase, Md., in June 2022. The suspect, who was 26 at the time, carried a handgun, knife, zip ties, and other items when he was apprehended after he called 911.
“We write to inform the Court that Mr. Roske wishes to plead guilty to the one-count Indictment pending against him,” the defendant’s attorneys wrote.
Roske intends to plead guilty to attempting to murder a justice, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He was set to face trial in June. The defendant will now forgo a trial by entering his guilty plea next week. His lawyers asked the presiding judge to schedule a hearing for Monday or Tuesday after they discussed the matter with federal prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman was preparing to hold a hearing for the defendant’s pretrial motions to dismiss the case next Tuesday. She still has to accept the guilty plea.
Following his arrest, Roske told authorities that he wanted to kill Kavanaugh because he was upset over the leaked draft opinion indicating the Supreme Court intended to overturn Roe v. Wade. The draft opinion prompted protests at some of the justices’ homes. Roske also planned to target two other unnamed justices.
The man told police that he struggled with suicidal thoughts and believed the world would be better off if he killed Kavanaugh.
“I’ve been suicidal for a long time,” he told authorities, according to a transcript of the interview. “And when I saw that the leaked draft, it made me upset and then it made me want to – I don’t know . . . I was under the delusion that I could make the world a better place by killing him.”
Roske was also upset over the May 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and thought Kavanaugh would use his position on the Supreme Court to limit gun control by ruling against New York’s concealed carry law at the time.
The arrest sparked concerns about the physical safety of judges, many of whom have been threatened in recent years. The issue of politically motivated violence against federal judges was addressed by Chief Justice John Roberts in his 2024 and 2022 year-end reports on the state of the federal judiciary.