Transgender Man Who Planned To Assassinate Brett Kavanaugh Will Serve Just 8 Years
The transgender man who meticulously planned to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022 will serve just eight years in federal prison after a Biden-appointed judge handed down a sentence far below the federal guidelines.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman sentenced Nicholas Roske to 97 months on Friday — the exact term Roske’s lawyers had requested — even though federal sentencing guidelines called for a minimum of 30 years. Prosecutors told The Daily Wire they intend to appeal.
Roske, who is 27, traveled from California to Kavanaugh’s Maryland home armed with weapons after a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion showed the court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. He called police from outside Kavanaugh’s house and surrendered before carrying out the assassination attempt, a fact his defense leaned on heavily in court.
Boardman acknowledged the crime “did involve domestic terrorism” but wiped away most of the “terrorism enhancement” that normally increases punishment in such cases. In a seven-hour hearing, she cited research claiming terrorists are not uniquely incapable of rehabilitation and repeatedly referred to Roske’s transgender identity as a factor in imposing a lighter sentence.
“Any prison time is punishment for her,” Boardman said, using female pronouns at times. “The length doesn’t need to be particularly long.” She added that Roske would be imprisoned in a male facility under a Trump-era executive order but may still receive hormone therapy while an injunction is in place.
Roske’s mother told the court she had begun attending PFLAG meetings and was “committed to going on this journey” with her child. Boardman said she was “heartened” that the case had helped Roske’s family “accept their daughter for who she is.”
Prosecutor Coreen Mao warned that “a single-digit sentence will say the ends justify the means, it’s a gamble one will take to assassinate a Supreme Court justice.”
Roske was convicted in July on two counts of attempting to assassinate a U.S. Justice but acquitted of more serious sex-trafficking and racketeering charges. With credit for time served and good behavior, he could be released in about four years, though he will remain under lifetime court supervision.
Roske’s online history paints a picture of a violent, self-described “trans gamer girl” obsessed with abortion, leftist politics, and sadomasochistic fantasies. In posts on Reddit he identified as a “MtF Pet For Owner” and wrote, “I am pro-abortion (in favor of aborting fetuses, not pro-choice).”
Kavanaugh’s relatives did not address the court and left abruptly after the judge announced the sentence. Prosecutors told the judge Roske was only “spooked” into surrendering when he saw deputy U.S. Marshals guarding Kavanaugh’s home.
Boardman insisted from the bench, “Judges are not political,” even as she repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s policies on transgender inmates during the hearing.
With time already served since his 2022 arrest, Roske could walk free years before the end of the decade, even though his crime — by the judge’s own admission — amounted to an act of domestic terrorism against a sitting Supreme Court Justice.