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Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh stands during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC., on April 23, 2021 (ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images).
A series of recently filed court documents offer additional insight into the mind of the man who allegedly tried to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Nicholas John Roske, 28, is slated to begin his trial on federal charges beginning June 9, 2025, in a Maryland U.S. District Court.
The defendant stands accused of one felony count of attempting to kidnap or murder, or threatening to assault, kidnap, or murder a judge, specifically, a sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
On Jan. 3, in five different filings made up of motions and supplemental motions, exhibits, and proposed sealed documents, Roske’s lawyers sought to stop prosecutors from introducing several pieces of evidence during his upcoming trial.
The two major motions aimed to suppress the results of a warrantless search and seizure and several statements made to investigators after his arrest outside Kavanaugh’s home in June 2022.
In well over 100 pages submitted to U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte, the defense argues police searched Roske’s belongings without a warrant and that he was not Mirandized before his interrogation.
That ensuing interrogation was made all the more legally suspect, defense attorneys say, due to Roske’s mental state at the time. That alleged mental health issue, in which Roske described himself as “actively suicidal,” rendered those statements neither “knowingly” nor “voluntarily” given.
A lengthy transcript with investigators filed on Friday offers several key insights into how the defendant viewed his mental health.
“My plan was to kill Mr. Kavanaugh and then myself,” Roske allegedly said at one point.
“Just kill myself, then,” he allegedly said when asked if his plan for the jurist did not work out. “I’ve been actively suicidal for, I don’t know, a long time now. Before I was researching this, which researching things is something I enjoy, so it’s — I don’t know if I would have been capable of actually doing it.”
When asked why he wanted to end a life forever, the defendant allegedly said he had considered killing pedophiles.
“I thought if I could, like, prevent a child from being raped, that would be good,” Roske allegedly said. “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that, like, I wouldn’t actually like do anything because the people that were convicted are already, like, on watch and all that stuff anyway.”
In the end, Roske allegedly said he thought that killing Kavanaugh would have a more positive impact — and apparently came to this conclusion over a leaked draft copy of the Supreme Court decision that overturned the right to an abortion.
“I’ve been suicidal for a long time, and when I saw that the leaked draft, it made me upset and then it made me want to — I don’t know,” Roske allegedly said. “I was under the — I was under the delusion that I could make the world a better place by killing him.”
The defendant also allegedly said hearing about the leak in the case stylized as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health made him want to do “something positive before I die.”
“And was it just the leaked decision that made you angry, in what way?” an interrogator asked. I’m just curious. You don’t need to answer that. It has nothing to do with anything.”
To which Roske allegedly replied: “From a civil rights perspective.”
The filings also contained the transcript of the June 8, 2022, 911 call in which Roske turned himself in.
One section reads:
THE DISPATCHER: And you said you came from California. Do you know someone down here?
MR. ROSKE: Brett Kavanaugh.
THE DISPATCHER: You said red, like that color?
MR. ROSKE: Brett.
THE DISPATCHER: Brett.
MR. ROSKE: The Supreme Court Justice.
THE DISPATCHER: Okay. And you came alone?
MR. ROSKE: Correct.
THE DISPATCHER: Okay. And why were you coming there? Just to hurt yourself and him or what was going to happen?
MR. ROSKE: Correct.