The California man who planned to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh will plead guilty in federal court, his lawyers said in a Wednesday filing.
Nicholas Roske, 29, who staked out near Kavanaugh’s home with weapons in 2022 before turning himself in to authorities, was set to face trial in June. The attempted assassination charge carries a sentence up to life in prison.
The attorneys revealed Roske’s intent in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Boardman Wednesday.
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“We write to inform the Court that Mr. Roske wishes to plead guilty to the one-count Indictment pending against him,” they wrote. The attorneys said they discussed this matter with federal prosecutors and offered a time next Monday for a guilty plea hearing.
In June 2022, Roske arrived at Kavanaugh’s home armed with a “tactical knife, a pistol with two magazines and ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch, crowbar, pistol light, [and] duct tape,” according to the Justice Department.
Roske turned himself in after seeing two deputy marshals outside the house.
The suspect later told police “he was upset about the leak of a recent Supreme Court draft decision regarding the right to abortion as well as the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.”
The assassination attempt came after Democrats and the legacy media repeatedly condemned the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the Roe v. Wade (1973) abortion precedent and returned abortion laws to the states.
In an historic first, the draft opinion leaked from the Supreme Court, leading to a summer of protests outside justices’ houses and vandalism against pro-life pregnancy centers and churches.
Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki refused to condemn the protests outside of Supreme Court justices’ homes.
In a discussion on abortion, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had said in 2020, “I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.”