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EXCLUSIVE: Attempted Kavanaugh Assassin Identifies As Transgender Woman, Legal Filings Show
WASHINGTON—The man who attempted to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh identifies as a transgender woman and was deeply mentally ill and suicidal, according to court documents first obtained by The Daily Wire.
The Department of Justice is recommending that the defendant, 29-year-old Nicholas Roske, be sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempting to kill the Supreme Court justice in 2022, according to a Friday filing outlining the case against Roske. Roske pled guilty to the attempt to kill a United States Supreme Court Justice in April 2025, three years after authorities arrested him in Kavanaugh’s neighborhood carrying a bag full of weapons and burglary tools.
A filing from Roske’s defense attorneys shows that Roske now goes by “Sophie Roske” and that his legal team will refer to him using female pronouns. A footnote on the filing, obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire, explains that the defense will not use Roske’s legal name “out of respect” for the would-be assassin.
“The case is captioned as United States v. Nicholas John Roske,” lawyers for Roske state. “That name remains Ms. Roske’s legal name, and she has not asked to recaption the case. Out of respect for Ms. Roske, the balance of this pleading and counsel’s in-court argument will refer to her as Sophie and use female pronouns.”
A source familiar with the legal proceedings in the case told The Daily Wire that Roske was using female identities online before the attempted murder, and now goes by the female name reflected in the defense filings.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told The Daily Wire that the attack is viewed as “political violence” and referred to Roske as a “disturbed individual.”
“This attempt against the life of a Supreme Court Justice was an attack on the entire judicial system that cannot go unpunished,” Bondi told The Daily Wire on Friday morning. “This Department of Justice condemns political violence and our prosecutors will ensure that this disturbed individual faces severe consequences for his deranged actions.”
In the filings obtained by The Daily Wire, Justice Department attorneys argue that the court’s sentence “must send the unequivocal, clear, and strong message that attempted violence and threats of violence against members of the judiciary — as well as other public and federal officials — cannot and will not be tolerated, and will be justly and severely condemned.”
They specifically state that the court’s sentence must be significant enough to not only “reflect the harm sought to be inflicted on the judiciary,” but also to send a message that the “consequences for these acts — no fewer than 30 years to life in prison — are not worth the perceived ideological ends.”
The revelation that Roske has been using a female name and pronouns is significant given the rise in transgender violence across the United States. A gunman living with his transgender boyfriend is accused of murdering Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk last week. Kirk’s murder came only a few weeks after 23-year-old trans-identifying gunman named Robin Westman opened fire on Catholic school children as they prayed at in Minneapolis.
Kirk’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was living with a 22-year-old trans-identified male named Lance Twiggs, thrown out of his family home for allegedly abusing drugs and alcohol and excessive gaming. Robinson and Twiggs were in a romantic relationship, authorities said.
(Photo by Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
The killings have prompted calls for investigations into transgender violence and extremism. Earlier this month, Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and senior director for counterterrorism, told The Daily Wire that the new draft U.S. Counterterrorism Plan addresses transgender violence.
The Daily Wire reported September 4 that the Justice Department was considering blocking trans-identifying people from buying firearms as part of “a range of options to prevent mentally unstable individuals from committing acts of violence, especially at schools.” Those discussions centered on the fact that those who identify as transgender suffer from gender dysphoria, a mental disorder describing the sense of unease that a man or woman may feel if he or she thinks that their biological sex is mismatched with their so-called gender identity.
And on Thursday, the conservative Oversight Project urged the FBI to designate “Transgender Ideology Violent Extremism” (TIVE) as a domestic extremism threat category and to “use the full toolkit of the FBI to prevent future attacks inspired by this ideology.”
Though it was reported in 2022 that Roske portrayed himself as a self-styled “trans gamer girl” on the internet, more information about the attempted assassin’s gender identity has not been made available to the public. Roske’s story had largely vanished from public scrutiny, other than occasional updates on his sentencing and charges.
The Friday DOJ filings show that Roske “meticulously researched, planned, and attempted to assassinate at least one — but had a stated target of three — sitting judges of the United States Supreme Court” with the “explicit objective” of “single-handedly” altering “the Constitutional order for ideological ends.” He conducted internet searches for the homes of the four Justices, purchased a Glock 17 pistol, ammunition, a rail-mounted tactical light with laser sight, tactical gloves, non-slip grip socks, cable ties, pepper spray, lock pick set, a screwdriver, and a wrecking bar.
“My mental health is too poor for me to fear death,” he wrote on Discord in March 18, 2022, to another user, according to the DOJ filing. “But prison sounds worse. To be monitored to the point where you can’t even kill yourself. So if I did kill someone I would definitely try to get away with it.”
In April 2022, he was googling shooting videos, school shooting videos, mass shootings and shooters, searching how to “buy guns online” and “which person’s death would have the biggest impact on the world?”
Court filings show that Roske described himself as “actively suicidal” and said he wanted to “do something positive before I die” by taking out Kavanaugh before the justice could vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. He found Kavanaugh’s neighborhood online after he saw an article with a “picture of the family’s house,” including the house number, because far left activists had posted the addresses of the justices online in attempts to intimidate them into preserving Roe.
Police officers look on as far-left abortion supporters protest outside the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. (Photo by Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)
In May 2022, POLITICO published a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion showing that the court was poised to overturn Roe, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to an abortion. That leak prompted protests outside the homes of the justices, the publication of their addresses online, and Roske’s journey from California to Maryland.
“I was thinking about — I was thinking about killing Brett Kavanaugh and then killing myself,” he said to the officers who arrived on the scene, according to January court filings. “And then I texted my sister that I loved her. And then she called me and she told me not to do it. And then I called 9-1-1.”
“I saw the news and it was upsetting, and I was already suicidal,” he told detectives later, as he described how he tracked down Kavanaugh’s home and planned the assassination. “And I don’t know. It was something to — it was like a project I guess.”
“When I saw the leaked draft, it made me upset and then it made me want to — I don’t know,” he shared. “I was under the delusion that I could make the world a better place by killing him.”
The DOJ filings show that after the Supreme Court leak, Roske searched terms relating to combat and body armor approximately 28 times. Within a month, he had searched for firearms-related terms over 90 times. That included “quietest semi auto rifle,” “gun calibers,” “best silencers for glock 17” and more. He was also searching “do snipers aim for the head or the chest,” “does the secret service protect supreme court justices,” and “easiest way to opena. locked door,” “how to break glass quietly,” “how to make shoes quieter,” and “how to make handcuffs with zip ties.”
On Discord, he was asking his online friends: “Would [associate justices’ last name] being removed from the [Supreme Court] help women long term?” And, “I was thinking of the Roe decision. I feel like those 9 people make a much bigger impact than most people” and “the thought of Roe v. Wade and gay marriage both being repealed has me furious.”
He was also researching how to kill people. Between May and June 2022, Roske was looking into the “most effective place to stab someone” and “how to quietly knock someone out.” He was searching “How far into the neck is the trachea,” “what is the best length of knife for stabbing,” the “Most effective way to silently kill someone,” and “how much force do you need to stab someone’s neck.”
And he had interest in fleeing to a foreign country — Roske was searching for “countries that don’t extradite to the US,” “how to get a passport in California,” “does Sweden extradite to the US,” and more.
He was also fully aware of what might happen after he committed an assassination, searching information about an insanity defense. “What happens if you are suicidal in prison,” he searched, and, “If you are hospitalized after a crime what happens.”
Roske flew from California to Dulles International Airport after he found Kavanaugh’s home using media photographs of protests outside the justice’s home.
Far-left abortion supporters protest outside the home of U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on May 11, 2022. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
POLITICO’s report acknowledged that it would likely “intensify” the already feverish debate, in the summer of 2022, over abortion and the Supreme Court decision. The publication was named as a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for the story, though the story did not win the prize.
“No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending,” wrote journalists Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward in their story on the leaked draft. “The unprecedented revelation is bound to intensify the debate over what was already the most controversial case on the docket this term.”
Authorities have failed to track down the leaker of the Supreme Court opinion.
In May, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said that the FBI is giving increased scrutiny to the “leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs case,” among a few other high-profile cases that have not been properly investigated.
“I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly and we are making progress,” Bongino said. “If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us then please contact the FBI.”
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