California man pleads guilty in Kavanaugh assassination attempt

GREENBELT, Md. — A California man pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh outside his home in 2022. 

Nicholas Roske, 29, wearing a yellow jumpsuit and flanked by his two public defenders in the Greenbelt, Md., courtroom, told the judge he desired to plead guilty despite not reaching a plea deal with prosecutors. 

Roske’s singular charge of attempting to assassinate a justice of the United States carries up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is set for Oct. 3. 

As part of his plea, Roske admitted that he flew from California to Washington Dulles International Airport in June 2022 before taking a taxi to the conservative justice’s Maryland home. Authorities who met Roske outside the home say they recovered a pistol, crow bar, ammunition, zip ties and other weapons.  

Roske’s case has become one of the most high-profile prosecutions over threats against judges, but Chief Justice John Roberts and other judiciary leaders have repeatedly sounded the alarm in recent years about violence and threats.

Roske, who is being treated for mental illness, had told authorities at the time that he was suicidal and intended to kill the justice over concerns at the time about the Supreme Court’s forthcoming decisions overturning abortion protections and expanding gun rights. 

 “I will be telling the truth today,” Roske told the judge Tuesday.

It’s a sudden shift in the case that was brought nearly three years ago.

After Roske was charged, his public defenders and the government had engaged in plea negotiations for more than a year and a half. After no resolution came about, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, an appointee of former President Biden who oversees the proceedings, began moving the case along and set a June trial date. 

On Tuesday, Boardman was scheduled to hold a hearing on Roske’s pre-trial motions that sought to make his statements and other evidence inadmissible at trial. But last week, Roske’s attorneys called off the hearing because their client was pleading guilty.

“Yes, I understand,” Roske told Boardman when she noted that he was giving up his right to bring the defense motions.