According to an FBI assessment, the Californian man apprehended outside Brett Kavanaugh’s house last month had searched for “assassin skills,” “how to be stealthy,” and “Reagan assassination attempt” and intended to assassinate three justices in total.
After calling his sister, who urged him to dial 911 and surrender, Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, was apprehended on June 8 while carrying a rifle, knife, and equipment for breaking into a house.
He entered a not guilty plea to trying to kill a Supreme Court justice on June 22. His trial is scheduled to begin on August 23.
On Wednesday, it was discovered that Roske had accessed Reddit boards using a number of different emails to seek guidance on killing a ‘HVT,’ or ‘high value target.
The FBI search warrant application states: ‘Roske said that he used his Reddit account to ask individuals, who were unknown to him, questions in order to refine his plan to kill the Justice.
‘Roske also stated that on Monday June 6, 2022, he attempted to use the settings menu on the Acer laptop to conduct a data wipe of the device because Roske did not want anyone he conversed with to be implicated as a result of his actions.’
On the Reddit site “Two X Chromosomes,” which prides itself on providing a female perspective, Roske asked, “Would Kavanaugh being removed from the SC help women in the long term?”
He received notes from people congratulating him for visiting a rifle range and training centre.
According to the affidavit, he looked up the “quietest semi-auto rifle” and the “most effective place to stab someone” on his cell phone.
In addition, Roske utilised the messaging service Discord to talk about his plans. He did so for four weeks prior to his arrest.
On May 25, Roske, who had been using the screen name ‘Sophie42,’ allegedly wrote to Person #1: ‘im gonna stop roe v wade from being overturned’
The other person replied: ‘what u tryna do’.
‘remove some people from the supreme court,’ Roske allegedly replied.
‘u gonna Tun? Run?’ Person #1 wrote back.
‘after you mean?’ wrote Roske.
‘oh haha good one,’ wrote Person #1.
‘Two dead judges ain’t gonna do nothing The whole government is f*****. There’s no fixing that You would die before you killed them all’.
Roske then replied: ‘yeah but I could get at least one, which would change the votes for decades to come, and I am shooting for 3. all of the major decisions for the past 10 years have been along party lines so if there are more liberal than conservative judges, they will have the power’.
On May 27, Roske received an email from an online gun store called Southern Ordnance, confirming his order for a Snap Gun Lock Pick – used by locksmiths to open locks – costing $49.95.
The warrant was filed by the FBI on Wednesday, and seeks access to all the email, Reddit and Discord accounts used by Roske.
According to an FBI affidavit, Roske had flown from California to Washington and was spotted arriving at Kavanaugh’s home in the middle of the night on June 8.
He was carrying a suitcase armed with a Glock-17 pistol, two magazine clips, a speed loader, a tactical knife, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch and a crowbar.
Shortly after arriving on the scene, however, police said he called 911 saying he was having suicidal thoughts.
He told the operator that he was going to kill Kavanaugh and then himself because he did not expect to get away with the crime.
Roske was quickly taken into custody following the call and allegedly confessed to investigators that he was upset about the leaked Supreme Court draft decision, indicating that Kavanaugh and his fellow conservative justices were poised to overturn Roe V. Wade and women’s federal right to abortions.
Investigators added that Roske told them that he believed Kavanaugh would loosen gun laws in the country in the wake of the deadly Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.
‘Roske stated that he began thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided that he would kill the Supreme Court Justice,’ according to the affidavit.
Kavanaugh, a Catholic native of Washington, was nominated to the high court in 2018, and his nomination sparked particularly acrimonious discussions about his attitudes toward women and abortion rights.
He was made to vehemently deny sexually assaulting a woman at a party while still a student in a series of confirmation hearings that electrified – and divided – much of the United States.
Following the death of abortion rights advocate Ruth Bader Ginsburg in October 2020, Amy Coney Barrett, a Catholic who is vehemently anti-abortion, joined the court, giving conservatives a 5-4 majority.
On June 24, Roe v. Wade was declared invalid, and demonstrations have been ongoing ever since.
Since then, Congress has passed legislation to increase security for the nine justices, with Biden’s approval of a measure to include their families in the protection.