WASHINGTON — The California man accused of traveling to Maryland in an attempt to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has begun discussing a possible plea deal with federal prosecutors, according to a new filing Thursday.
Nicholas Roske, 27, was arrested in June 2022 outside Kavanaugh’s Montgomery County home after telling an emergency dispatcher he was having thoughts of harming himself and Kavanaugh and had a firearm in his suitcase. A search of Roske’s luggage after his arrest turned up a 9mm Glock 17 pistol with two magazines and ammo, a black tactical chest rig, a knife, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, a crowbar and duct tape. In an interview with police, Roske reportedly said he was upset about the leak of the then-draft decision that ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade as well as the possibility that Kavanaugh would vote to loosen gun control laws.
“ROSKE stated that he began thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided that he would kill the Supreme Court Justice after finding the Justice’s Montgomery County address on the Internet,” prosecutors said in court filings.
A week after Roske’s arrest, a federal grand jury indicted him on one count of attempting to assassinate a justice of the United States – a felony that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Roske chose not to contest detention and has been in pretrial custody since his arrest on June 8, 2022.
Roske last appeared in federal court in Maryland in October 2022. Since then, there has been little public activity in his case except for periodic status every two months. In those reports, including one filed last month, Roske’s attorneys have consistently said they were continuing to investigate the government’s allegations against Roske and required “additional time to determine whether a resolution may be reached short of trial.”
On Thursday, assistant federal public defender Andrew R. Szekely filed a new status report with different language.
“The parties have recently started discussions regarding a possible pretrial resolution,” Szekely wrote.
The filing asked U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte to allow for continued discussions until the next status report on or before Jan. 29.
During Roske’s most recent court appearance in October 2022, Messitte informed Roske he would likely order a competency evaluation before accepting any potential plea deal. Court records do not indicate if such an evaluation was ever ordered.
In July 2022, Roske’s attorneys filed a motion seeking to have statements he made during his arrest and in a subsequent interview excluded from use in the case. As of Thursday, Messitte had yet to rule on that request.