The man who plotted to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh will now stand trial after plea negotiations stalled.
Nicholas John Roske was arrested in 2022 in Kavanaugh’s Maryland neighborhood; he was allegedly armed with a Glock pistol, a tactical knife, two magazines of ammunition, pepper spray, a hammer, a screwdriver, a crow bar, and duct tape, and while wearing soft-soled boots to allow him to move quietly. Instead of carrying out his plan to kill Kavanaugh and then himself, however, he texted his sister and confessed what he was about to do. Police said Roske was angry about the leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
Roske’s defense attorneys have been negotiating a potential plea agreement for over a year, but a court filing from prosecutors said a deal couldn’t be reached. The case will therefore go to trial. A federal judge recently said he will likely have Roske undergo a mental health evaluation to determine if he is fit to participate in his defense, enter a plea of guilty or innocent, or stand trial. When he was initially arrested, Roske entered a not guilty plea, but it’s not known if he will continue to maintain his innocence, or plead guilty.
After the draft opinion was leaked, violence against the pro-life movement exploded. Pro-abortion journalists, like Caroline Reilly, encouraged the violence; after a pregnancy resource center was firebombed, she tweeted, “[M]ore of this. [M]ay these people never know a moment of peace or safety until they rot in the ground.”
The pro-abortion group “Ruth Sent Us” doxxed the pro-life Supreme Court justices, releasing their home addresses publicly on TikTok after the draft leak, and organizing protests to take place in front of their homes. They also targeted two of the justices’ children, giving explicit directions on how to get to the school attended by Amy Coney Barrett’s children, and encouraging people to protest there. They also targeted Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s wife, Ashley, with a tweet that included a photo taken outside her children’s school.
