The assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh had a much wider scope than first reported. The FBI’s investigation into Nicholas Roske has uncovered an explicitly political motive for the murder plan, as well as a wider target selection. “I’m shooting for 3,” Roske texted a pal as his plan to salvage Roe:
The California man accused of plotting to assassinate Brett M. Kavanaugh spoke of killing two more conservative justices in a bid to alter Supreme Court votes for years, according to an FBI affidavit filed this week in court.
“Im gonna stop roe v wade from being overturned,” the suspect, Nicholas Roske, 26, wrote in an online message to an associate.
“What u tryna do,” the associate asked.
“Remove some people from the supreme court,” Roske allegedly responded, before adding, “I could get a least one, which would change the votes for decades to come, and I am shooting for 3.”
Roske wasn’t just “shooting” for three, either. According to the New York Post, Roske had hoped for a more personal murder experience when it came to the Supreme Court justices:
The California man charged with the attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh googled the “most effective place to stab someone” before showing up at the conservative judge’s home with a stockpile of weapons, according to newly released details.
The revelation was included in an FBI search warrant obtained by Fox News that shed light on other disturbing internet searches by Nicholas John Roske, 26, and alarming conversations he had with online strangers ahead of his alleged ill-fated plot to kill Kavanaugh.
“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,” authorities said in the warrant application, according to Fox.
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He searched the web for things like “how to be stealthy,” “assassin skills” and “most effective place to stab someone” in the weeks before his alleged June 8 assassination attempt.
These reports raise a veeeerrrrryyyy interesting point. Roske doesn’t appear to have been a loner — in fact, for a murder-plotter, Roske seems downright chatty. Reddit isn’t some unknown corner of the “dark web” either. And yet, we’ve been told that the first the FBI or local police knew of this plot was when Roske called 911 to turn himself in.
He wasn’t exactly discreet, after all, as the Washington Post points out from the affidavit:
Going back to at least a month before his flight, according to the FBI, Roske made incriminating statements over social media and in internet searches. On May 10, the affidavit alleges, he posted text on Reddit that stated: “Would Kavanaugh being removed from the SC help women long term?” …
On June 6, Roske posted a question on Reddit using what the FBI calls an abbreviation for high-value target: “How difficult is it to covertly take out an HVT?”
Granted, Reddit has a prodigious amount of chatter, and it might be tough to find a murderous needle in a field of trolling haystacks. But other users certainly noticed and engaged with Roske on these questions and comments. Did no one contact law enforcement about this threat?
Clearly, this wasn’t just a case of celebrity envy. This was a political assassination plot on Roske’s part, one with very particular political ends aimed at multiple targets. If the politics on this were reversed, we’d be hearing about this case endlessly as an example of right-wing domestic terrorism. In contrast, the media has barely covered this case despite its parallel to other violent actions in protest of the Dobbs decision organized by Jane’s Revenge and the intimidation campaigns of Ruth Sent Us that identified the justices’ locations for Roske.
Where’s Merrick Garland and his dot-connecting now? Where’s Joe Biden and the White House? Where are national media outlets on this story, other than on this kind of nuts-and-bolts affidavit-content coverage?
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