Would-Be Kavanaugh Assassin Gets Just Over 8 Years in Prison (2)

The person arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home with weapons following the leaked Supreme Court abortion ruling was sentenced to just over eight years in prison for trying to kill a justice.

US District Judge Deborah Boardman of the District of Maryland announced the 97-month penalty Friday against Sophie Roske, charged under the legal name Nicholas John Roske, six months after she pleaded guilty to the attempted assassination. Boardman also sentenced Roske to a lifetime of supervised release.

“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,” Boardman said during the sentencing.

Roske’s sentence is lower than the minimum 30 years requested by the Justice Department and recommended by the federal sentencing guidelines.

Boardman noted that threats against federal judges appear to be on the rise in recent years. But the judge credited Roske with calling the police and confessing her plan to kill the justice, saying it’s unlikely that Roske would have ever been charged if she hadn’t.

During a sentencing hearing that lasted nearly a full day, Boardman raised concerns about the conditions Roske would face in federal prison as a transgender woman and the mental health treatment she’d receive.

“We both know about the very significant shortcomings in the Bureau of Prisons when it comes to treating mentally ill prisoners,” Boardman told the government’s lawyer, Coreen Mao.

The judge also raised President Donald Trump’s executive order this year requiring that inmates be incarcerated in facilities that align with the gender assigned at birth.

Boardman deliberated for over an hour following both sides’ presentations in the Greenbelt courtroom, and afterward spent almost two hours in court going over the factors she weighed in crafting the sentence.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that the Justice Department plans to appeal “the woefully insufficient sentence imposed by the district court, which does not reflect the horrific facts of this case.”

Rising Threats

The sentence comes amid an uptick in threats against federal judges. The US Marshals Service, the Justice Department agency tasked with protecting the federal judiciary, logged 562 threats against federal judges in fiscal 2025, which ended Sept. 30.

In a separate case in Texas federal court, a California woman was sentenced Sept. 30 to five years in prison for threatening Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who ruled to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone, in a message over the court’s help line.

Federal judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries to their home addresses, and several said in interviews that threats are particularly distressing when directed at family members.

The US has also seen a recent escalation of violence this year across the political spectrum, following the assassinations of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month and of a Democratic legislator and her husband in Minnesota in June.

“Violence is never a means to a political end in a democratic society,” Boardman said. “Political violence should never be accepted, and it should never, ever be normalized.”

Government Request

In asking for a higher sentence, Mao argued at Friday’s hearing that Roske’s conduct “was entirely premeditated” and stemmed from months of planning and preparation, including gun purchases, internet research, and cross-country travel. Mao also noted Roske messaged friends on Discord that she aimed to kill three justices.

Mao urged the judge to hand down a sentence long enough to “send the very strong, very clear message that the ends never justify violent means,” and deter future would-be political assassins. For example, earlier this year, Kavanaugh received a threat in the mail that referenced Roske, Mao said.

Public officials make many sacrifices, but “what they should never have to sacrifice is their personal safety and the personal safety of their families,” Mao said.

Boardman said she wouldn’t fully enact the terrorism enhancement in her sentence, but wouldn’t fully disregard it either.

Defense lawyers for Roske, of Simi Valley, California, said in court filings a 30-year prison sentence would be too harsh and instead asked for an eight-year prison sentence followed by 25 years of supervised release, despite the sentencing guidelines.

Roske’s attorneys urged the judge to consider that Roske voluntarily abandoned the assassination plan after arriving at the justice’s house, called authorities and surrendered to law enforcement, and has a history of mental illness. Roske “is the wrong vehicle to send a very harsh deterrence message,” Andrew Szekely, one of Roske’s attorneys, told the judge.

While prosecutors painted Roske’s decision not to enter Kavanaugh’s home as a response to seeing a security detail outside the home, Ellie Marranzini, another defense lawyer, said Roske experienced a “a crisis of conscience” and decided on her own not to continue with the plan.

Roske is “deeply remorseful and deeply ashamed” and “is sorry to be part of a terrible trend of political violence in our country,” they wrote in court filings.

Addressing the court before the sentence was announced, Roske apologized to Kavanaugh and his family “for the considerable distress I put them through.”

US Marshals Service officers spotted Roske exiting a taxi cab in front of Kavanaugh’s Maryland residence around 1 a.m. in June 2022. She left the scene, called an emergency line, and reported “suicidal and homicidal thoughts,” according to court filings. Roske was later found by authorities with a firearm, ammunition, duct tape, and other supplies, court filings show.

Roske admitted to an officer she was upset about the recent leak of a Supreme Court opinion overturning the constitution right to abortion access and that she decided to kill Kavanaugh, according to court filings.

The 2022 leak of a draft ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case led to protests outside the homes of several conservative members of the court and prompted 24/7 residential protection for the justices.

The case is USA v. Roske, D. Md., No. 8:22-cr-00209, 10/3/25