The California man allegedly behind a foiled assassination attempt against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh planned the attack for weeks before he traveled to the justice’s Maryland home, according to a newly released FBI search-warrant application.
Nicholas John Roske, 26, was arrested outside of Kavanaugh’s home last month after he told 911 dispatchers he was having suicidal thoughts and that he had come “from California to kill a specific” Supreme Court justice. Authorities found a Glock 17 handgun with two magazines and ammunition, a tactical knife, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, a screwdriver, and other gear in Roske’s backpack.
The FBI search-warrant application, obtained by Fox News, reveals Roske was allegedly planning to target at least two other unnamed members of the Court.
In the weeks before the foiled attack, Roske used Google to search “how to be stealthy,” “assassin skills,” and “most effective place to stab someone.”
“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,” according to the application.
It says he told a user on an Internet forum that he was “gonna stop roe v wade from being overturned.”
When the user asked, “what u tryna do,” Roske allegedly replied, “remove some people from the Supreme Court.”
The person told Roske, “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 said, “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.”
He told authorities that he was motivated by the leaked majority draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that would overturn Roe v. Wade. He said he was contemplating “how to give his life purpose” when he decided to kill Kavanaugh after finding his address on the Internet, according to a criminal complaint.