Justice Brett Kavanaugh's wouldbe assassin sentenced to 8 years prison ALEXANDER MALLINOctober 3, 2025 at 7:33 PM 0 The California resident who pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his home in 2022 was sentenced Friday to just over eight years in priso...
- - Justice Brett Kavanaugh's would-be assassin sentenced to 8 years prison
ALEXANDER MALLINOctober 3, 2025 at 7:33 PM
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The California resident who pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his home in 2022 was sentenced Friday to just over eight years in prison, far below the three-decade term sought by federal prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors had sought at least 30 years in prison for Sophie Roske, who arrived outside Kavanaugh's home in June three years ago in possession of a Glock 17 pistol and an array of other tools that prosecutors said she intended to use to break in, restrain Kavanaugh, and ultimately kill him.
In explaining her decision to sentence Roske to 97 months and a lifetime of supervised release, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman said she credited Roske for phoning authorities at the scene and reporting herself.
Calif. man indicted for allegedly attempting to assassinate Brett Kavanaugh at his home
Boardman further expressed doubts in the government's contention that Roske would have carried out the attempted assassination if she hadn't seen the U.S. Marshals stationed outside Kavanaugh's residence.
Roske pleaded guilty this past April and admitted in court papers that she traveled from California to Washington, D.C., after extensively researching the homes of four separate conservative Supreme Court Justices -- with an intent to kill at least three.
Roske, whose lawyers disclosed in court papers in September that Roske was in the process of transitioning from male to female, took a cab directly from Dulles Airport to Kavanaugh's house and immediately observed Kavanaugh's U.S. Marshals protective detail, after which she began walking away from the residence.
Further supporting her argument for some leniency in Roske's sentence, Judge Boardman pointed to President Donald Trump's recent executive order that mandates transgender inmates must serve in a prison corresponding with the gender they were assigned at birth.
Leah Millis/Reuters, FILE - PHOTO: In this March 12, 2025, file photo, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh listens to remarks at an event at Vice President JD Vance's residence in Washington, D.C.
Judge Boardman further said that Roske would likely be better served through a lengthy period of supervised release where she could receive effective mental health treatment.
Prosecutors with the Justice Department had argued that a harsh sentence for Roske was essential to deter future threats or attacks against judges and public officials at a time of rising political violence around the country.
"No judge or public official should have to live under the fear thinking that at any moment, at any given day, at any given time, that they could be killed in cold blood simply for doing their job," Assistant U.S. Attorney Coreen Mao argued Friday in court. "The very early morning of June 8, 2022, that fear was very nearly realized for an associate justice of the Supreme Court and the justice's family."
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the DOJ intends to appeal the sentence.
"The attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a disgusting attack against our entire judicial system by a profoundly disturbed individual," Bondi said in a statement. "The Department of Justice will be appealing the woefully insufficient sentence imposed by the district court, which does not reflect the horrific facts of this case."
During a presentation at Roske's hearing, Mao displayed each of the weapons and tactical items that were found in Roske's possession, and said that but for the presence of the marshals, Roske would likely have been successful in attacking Kavanaugh and his family.
Armed man arrested near Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh's home charged with attempted murder
"It really was the law enforcement presence the morning of June 8, 2022, that altered the outcome of the associate justice's life in this case," Mao said.
But Judge Boardman said Friday that she didn't believe the government had proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Roske was only deterred by the marshals being outside Kavanaugh's home, and credited Roske for phoning police herself immediately after and admitting she had been plotting to kill the justice and had been experiencing homicidal and suicidal thoughts.
"In my 17 years of experience in federal criminal law in the District of Maryland, as a public defender and as a judge, I have never heard of another criminal defendant doing that," Judge Boardman said. "That is not the conduct of a person who is inherently dangerous. That shows me that something inside of her stopped her from inflicting harm another human being."
Roske was placed under arrest soon after she called authorities, and in an interview with law enforcement said she was upset about the leaked draft of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision on abortion as well as the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
The sentencing comes amid a wave of political violence in America, and prosecutors cited Roske's case as a singularly heinous attempted act of domestic terrorism which they said was intended to "single-handedly alter the Constitutional order for ideological ends."
In their sentencing memo, prosecutors argued Roske's actions have "led to other threats," including an unnamed Associate Justice on the Supreme Court receiving a letter that evoked Roske's name while referencing a gunshot to the Justice's head.
"This shows that not only is the defendant a threat to the Associate Justice and other members of the Court, but that defendant's actions will continue to have consequences for the Court and its members for years to come," the filing stated. "It is paramount that the sentence imposed in this case powerfully send the message that violence and threats of violence are not acceptable methods of expressing disagreement with a judicial ruling."
"The sentence must send the message that the costs imposed for attempting to override our constitutional system of government through attempted murder vastly outweigh any perceived benefit," the filing said.
Before she was sentenced, Roske delivered a short statement to the court apologizing to Justice Kavanaugh. She teared up as she cited her poor mental health conditions as contributing to her decisions leading up to the assassination attempt.
"I sincerely apologize to the justice and this family for the considerable distress I put them through," Roske said. "I am also deeply sorry to the Justice Department for contributing to the fear judges experience as a result of doing their jobs."
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