Justice Department Seeks 30-year Sentence for Would-Be Kavanaugh Assassin

The defendant’s attorneys said the sentence should not exceed eight years.

Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh poses for an official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 7, 2022. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

The Justice Department stated on Sept. 19 that it will seek a sentence of at least 30 years behind bars for Nicholas John Roske for attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh three years ago.

Roske was dressed in black when he was arrested on the morning of June 8, 2022, while carrying a gun, a knife, and zip ties near Kavanaugh’s home in the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland, according to an affidavit.

Roske entered a guilty plea earlier in 2025 and is expected to be sentenced in October. He previously said he wanted to kill Kavanaugh to prevent him from voting to overturn abortion rights and gun control laws, according to the FBI.

The incident took place weeks after a leaked draft opinion indicated that the Supreme Court was about to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

The department’s filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland came as Roske’s attorneys said their client now uses feminine pronouns and goes by Sophie Roske instead of his birth name, Nicholas John Roske.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement: “This attempt against the life of a Supreme Court Justice was an attack on the entire judicial system that cannot go unpunished.

“This Department of Justice condemns political violence and our prosecutors will ensure that this disturbed individual faces severe consequences for his deranged actions.”

The department’s filing states that Roske “made a concerted and focused attempt to undermine and subvert the United States government by assassinating—in the defendant’s own words, ‘at least one’ sitting justice of the United States Supreme Court.”

Roske said that he would be “shooting for three” justices, according to the filing.

The defendant’s plans were disrupted when he arrived at Kavanaugh’s residence by “the presence of a protective security detail, and the defendant was arrested at that location,” court documents state.

Roske’s attorneys filed papers with the district court on Sept. 19 arguing that their client’s custodial sentence should not exceed eight years because he called 911 to turn himself in and has cooperated in the investigation.

Roske, who was 26 at the time of the plot, has been incarcerated at a jail in Maryland since the 2022 arrest and should receive credit for time served, the lawyers said.

Roske’s attorneys did not reply to a request for comment.

Reuters and Juliette Fairley contributed to this report.