You may recall the name of Nicholas Roske from the chaotic days in the summer of 2022 when the Supreme Court was preparing to rule in the Dobbs case. He’s the guy who showed up at Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house with a case full of guns, ammunition, and related gear looking to assassinate Kavanaugh. (He also sometimes “identified” as a transgender woman on social media.) But he then basically swatted himself, calling the police and revealing what he was doing. Thankfully, he was eventually taken into custody without incident. You would think that the courts could make quick work of Roske, but nearly two years later the case remains almost entirely stalled. He hasn’t even shown up in a courtroom since November of 2022. So what’s the holdup? (Washington Free Beacon)
President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is dragging its feet in prosecuting Nicholas Roske, the man accused of trying to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, leaving legal experts perplexed about the slow-moving pace of the case.
Roske was indicted for attempted murder of a Supreme Court justice nearly two years ago in June 2022, after allegedly traveling from his parent’s home in California to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., with the intent to kill Kavanaugh. Roske, a biological male who identified in some online posts as a transgender woman, was upset over the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, according to court documents.
After arriving by taxi at Kavanaugh’s house, Roske called the police on himself and was eventually found with a suitcase full of guns, ammo, zip ties, and other tools to carry out the attack.
At least one legal analyst has described the case against Roske as “a slam dunk” for the prosecution. But the defense has filed a series of motions that keep delaying it from moving forward, with more than ten continuances having been granted thus far. It’s not entirely clear who is responsible for all of the delays, however. One former federal prosecutor described the strategy as a “slow plea.” That describes a situation when prosecutors are confident that they can bring home a guilty verdict and see little reason to offer any sweeteners to the defense. In turn, the defense seeks to drag things out in the hopes that better terms might be offered.
I suppose that makes sense to a certain extent. But at the same time, it’s not hard to imagine the Biden Justice Department being reluctant to bang the gavel and lay a harsh sentence on someone identifying as transgender in the middle of an election. That’s particularly true if the offender was objecting to Roe being overturned while Biden is running on an “abortion rights” platform.
I’m not trying to veer too far into tinfoil hat territory here, but this is something that Biden’s DOJ could probably pull off rather easily and without leaving much of a paper trail. The case is being heard by Judge Peter Messitte, a Clinton nominee. Someone from Biden’s team could easily put a bug in his ear, suggesting that there was no rush and that he should probably give all of Roske’s requests for continuations a thorough evaluation. After all, they can always convict him after the election and Roske’s defense team is doing all of the dirty work for them. Assuming he is eventually convicted, Roske could even be given credit for a couple of years of time served.
I’ve set up a news alert for this case so we can keep you up to date if there are further developments. This hopefully isn’t a situation where the fix is in to bail out a violent crime defendant because they claim to be trans, but there’s definitely something fishy going on here.