A federal judge sentenced Nicholas “Sophie” Roske to just over eight years in prison on Friday for reportedly attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in 2022, a punishment far lighter than the 30 years or more that federal prosecutors had argued was necessary.
Roske, 29, spent weeks preparing to kill Justice Kavanaugh, court records show. He purchased a Glock 17 pistol, ammunition, zip ties, pepper spray, and a lock pick before boarding a flight from California to Washington, D.C. In June 2022, he took a taxi to Justice Kavanaugh’s suburban Maryland home in the dead of night.
“What Sophie Roske did, devising and nearly executing a plan to kill a Supreme Court justice in an attempt to change a Supreme Court ruling and the composition of the court is absolutely reprehensible and will be punished,” U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman said.
But Judge Boardman, an appointee of former President Biden, declined to impose the decades-long punishment requested by the Justice Department. Instead, she credited Roske for backing out of the plot, for having no prior criminal record, and for showing remorse. She also cited President Trump’s executive order that requires biological males who identify as women to be housed in male facilities, noting that Roske’s incarceration would be impacted by the policy. After his sentence, Roske will face a lifetime of supervised release.
Attorney General Pam Bondi sharply criticized the ruling, promising an appeal. “The attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a disgusting attack against our entire judicial system by a profoundly disturbed individual,” she said. The eight-year term, she added, is “woefully insufficient” and “does not reflect the horrific facts of this case.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Coreen Mao echoed that warning, calling Roske “a very real threat to our system of government.” She told the court that Roske had discussed killing other justices as well and reminded the judge that a threatening letter sent to Justice Kavanaugh earlier this year contained Roske’s name. “No judge or public official should have to live under the fear thinking that any moment at any given day at any given time they could be killed in cold blood simply for doing their job,” Ms. Mao said.
Roske, dressed in a yellow jumpsuit, asked for leniency. “I have been portrayed as a monster, and this tragic mistake I made will follow me for the rest of my life,” he said tearfully. His family, including his parents and sister, also pleaded with the court for a lighter sentence.
Prosecutors laid out the arsenal of tools Roske carried with him, from tactical gloves and a crowbar to a thermal imaging monocular. They said the only reason the plot was not carried out was because Roske, after spotting law enforcement nearby, phoned his sister and then dialed 911 on himself.
Justice Kavanaugh and his family chose not to attend the sentencing or provide a victim impact statement. But the episode remains one of the starkest examples of escalating threats against members of the judiciary. The U.S. Marshals Service reported 562 threats against federal judges in the last fiscal year.
For many conservatives, the eight-year sentence raises troubling questions about whether the justice system is applying equal weight when the targets of violence are conservatives.
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