Justice Kavanaugh's attempted assassin sentenced to 8 years in prison
DOJ prosecutors asked for 30 years, emphasizing that the court must send a 'very clear message' that violence is never justified
By Ashley Oliver Fox News
Published October 3, 2025 5:05pm EDT
A federal judge sentenced Nicholas Roske, who now goes by Sophie, to eight years in prison on Friday for attempting to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the weeks leading up to the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision.
The sentence is far lower than what the Department of Justice had sought. Prosecutors said Roske should face at least 30 years, while Roske's defense team had asked for eight.
"The sentence must send the very strong, very clear message that the ends never justify violent means," DOJ prosecutor Coreen Mao said during the sentencing hearing.
Kavanaugh also received a death threat in April from someone who invoked Roske's name and referenced shooting the justice in the head, Mao said, stressing a need to deter such behavior. That revelation comes as judges say they have faced a rise in threats from people across the political spectrum in recent years.
During the hearing, Judge Deborah Boardman referred to Roske as a transgender woman, and Roske's attorneys told the court recently that while their client's legal name was Nicholas, Roske goes by the name Sophie and uses female pronouns.
Boardman, a Biden appointee, said she factored into the sentence her concern about Trump's executive order requiring transgender inmates to be detained in prisons that correspond to their sex at birth.
Roske pleaded guilty in April to one charge of attempting to murder a Supreme Court justice, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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