Attorney General Pam Bondi says DOJ will appeal ‘woefully insufficient’ sentence for would-be Kavanaugh assassin

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed the Department of Justice will be “appealing the woefully insufficient” sentence for the would-be assassin of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh that was handed down by a Maryland federal judge Friday.

“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 Friday on X.

“@TheJusticeDept will be appealing the woefully insufficient sentence imposed by the district court, which does not reflect the horrific facts of this case.”

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Maryland US District Judge Deborah Boardman, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, gave attempted killer Nicholas Roske — who came out after being caught as a trans woman named “Sophie” — just an eight-year sentence, which had been requested by his defense team, and a lifetime of supervised release.

DOJ prosecutors sought a prison term of 30 years to life for the man who targeted the high court justice in June 2022, arriving in a taxi outside Kavanaugh’s Chevy Chase, Md., home with a Glock 17 pistol, ammunition, a tactical light, zip ties, pepper spray and burglary tools.

The Simi Valley, Calif., native spotted deputy US Marshalls upon exiting the taxi and kept walking down the street before dialing 911, reported having suicidal and homicidal thoughts and asked for psychiatric help.

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Federal investigators said Roske, 29, planned to kill the justice after the Supreme Court’s draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health was leaked months before by Politico.

“The thought of Roe v Wade and gay marriage both being repealed has me furious,” Roske confessed later, noting that he was targeting at least three justices and planned to carry out an assassination that could alter decisions on the nine-member court “for decades to come,” according to statements and encrypted messages obtained by the feds.

“The defendant’s actions and intent — which were determined, focused, and undeterred for months — were extremely dangerous to the lives of multiple sitting judges, their family members, and the Constitutional judicial order,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo filed Sept. 26.

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“The sentence imposed in this case must send the powerful message, both to the defendant and to others who contemplate committing assassination to obstruct judicial independence, that these ends never justify the means and that the consequences are not worth engaging in these acts.”

Roske apologized in court to Kavanaugh, the justice’s family, other members of the high court and the public “for contributing to a trend of political violence in American politics,” saying “this tragic mistake that I made will follow me for the rest of my life.”

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“I can see now how destructive and misguided such acts are, and am ashamed to have not recognized these things sooner,” Roske also wrote in a written declaration to the court.

Defense lawyers in their sentencing memo, which included with letters from family members, asked for the judge to not impose the prosecution’s requested prison term, noting Roske’s “voluntary disclosure of the offense, peaceful surrender, and post-arrest cooperation with law enforcement.”

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The memo also cited Roske’s “history of mental illness,” including suicidal thoughts and at least one attempt, and the “harshness of the conditions of confinement” in a federal prison due to the Trump administration’s new policies “regarding transgender inmates.”

While the defense began acknowledging their client as “Sophie” and using female pronouns in court filings, Nicholas Roske did not undergo a legal name change during the course of the prosecution.

“The plan to kill [Kavanaugh], which included her purchasing burglary tools and firearm, was secondary to her months-long desire to kill herself,” Roske’s lawyers wrote in their memo, noting that their client apparently came out as a transgender woman privately in 2020.

Boardman expressed sympathy in the sentencing hearing for Roske as “a transgender woman” asking to receive hormone therapy and being “assigned to a facility according to the gender of their birth” due to one of Trump’s executive orders, The Daily Caller reported.

Roske has been undergoing gender-reassignment procedures since being incarcerated in mid-2022.

With Post wires