New federal court filings reveal troubling information hidden in plain sight about 26-year-old Nicholas John Roske, the defendant identified as a “California man” by the Justice Department and charged in the Kavanaugh assassination plot, leading to a cache of perverse Reddit and Discord activity that pieces together the suspect’s apparent motive, gender identity, and unstable mental state.

An FBI affidavit applying for search warrants asserts there is probable cause to believe that the Roske’s various Reddit, Google, and Discord accounts contain publicly available evidence of the federal crimes 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(b), threatening to murder a U.S. judge, and 18 U.S.C § 351(c), attempting to assassinate a U.S. justice.

Leaving a breadcrumb trail of almost-laughable clues, Roske’s suspicious online musings—the evident smoking gun in the investigation—reads like the comically doltish chronicles of the half-baked Home Alone “wet bandits” whose calling card was to leave water running in every house they’d ransacked.

It’s an alarming digital footprint, an unsettling yet telling Internet history one might find from a certain class of disturbed individuals. (You know the spiel: the family, friends, and colleagues of a notorious serial killer would later admit in a sit-down “60 Minutes” interview, “Now that I think about it—there were a few signs,” and federal authorities would often disclose to the public in hindsight, “The mass shooter was known to the FBI.”)

Meet ‘Sophie’ the ‘Trans Gamer Girl’

In this particular high-profile attempted murder case, an FBI special agent identified several Reddit accounts Roske operated in recent years—one of which the suspect used to embrace his transexual “femme” and submissive “sissy slave” persona, according to the search warrant applications filed in federal court.

Behind the Reddit username “AmericanNick,” Roske posted a series of “Craigslist personals” section-style wanted ads. A year ago, Roske penned a “[F4F]” (meaning female-for-female) Reddit post on the “r/GamerPals” subreddit, titled “Trans Gamer Girl Seeking Friend,” with the tag “GIRLS ONLY.” There, in the same forum, the suspect had introduced himself as his female alter-ego via another Reddit post: “Hi my name is Sophie.”

In a separate Reddit community created for Redditors in search of connecting with others in the Seattle area, Roske sought a female “Cuddle/Movie Buddy” as an “MtF [male-to-female]” college graduate “looking for a woman to cuddle and watch movies with.” Roske wrote in the post’s contents: “If this turns into making out, etc that’s cool, if not that’s cool too.” The suspect, listing himself as a “Trans Girl” in the city’s University District, struck a more erotic tone with his approach in another Reddit post soliciting “Another Girl for Play/Friendship” on a recurring basis. Roske, then 25, divulged that he has “many kinks and only a few limits” but would “enjoy some vanilla time” as well. “I have done a lot of research and have some experience being both a sub and a domme,” Roske typed. He was scouting for “play partners” in The Rainy City as someone who’s “pretty kinky” with “an ever expanding collection of toys and tools.” Roske proclaimed that he is sexually attracted to anyone “androgynous or feminine” who’s not “a cis[gender] man” and uses “she/her” pronouns.

Those are just the PG posts. Roske has frequented the fetish subreddit “r/SissyPersonals,” an X-rated “place for sissys and daddys to meet.” In an explicit Reddit post, Roske desired one such “Daddy to Have Complete Sexual Control Over Me.” Specifically, the suspect wanted to be told “how long I have to be in chastity for and what I am allowed to do when you let me out” along with tasks to do while “locked up,” whether this be the “number of times I have to edge myself, time riding a dildo, watching porn, all three or more!” Roske asked Redditors to private message “if you want me as your sexual toy to frustrate, humiliate, and control.”

Another lewd Reddit post of Roske’s requested a female “For Training and Ownership” or a “Sister Sissy.” This time, Roske attached an image of naked buttocks, presumably his, and what looks like contorted genitalia. Two similar Reddit listings—one entitled “Women Only”—both featured a close-up shot of an anus. “I would like to be a better sissy but I am such a dumb slut I can’t do it by myself,” Roske, age 24 at the time, wrote in a different advertisement. “I am seeking a Mistress or experienced sissy to help train me.” On behalf of his 32-year-old “Master,” Roske searched for a woman “to play with him” and experience “lots of pleasure.”

Roske also characterized himself as a “Pet” looking for an “Owner” on the Seattle personals page. “I want to be someone’s treasured property. I want to wear nothing but a collar, ears, and tail plug and communicate only through my body what I want…You could have me at your place as you study or work from home, and I just walk over for occasional pets. I want to be treated as less than human but still loved,” Roske pleaded.

Roske’s Radical Pro-Abortion Ideology: Kill all babies to erase humanity, thus ending human suffering

While using the Reddit username “AmericanNick7,” Roske provided deeper insight into his far-left worldview and psychological well-being. Roske declared in the “r/ChangeMyView” subreddit, “I am pro-abortion (in favor of aborting fetuses, not pro-choice,” a “radical” view he acknowledged, but a belief he held “sincerely.”

“I think that something as significant as consciousness should not be imposed on matter (the person before they gain consciousness) without consent, and as a non-conscious person cannot give consent, being born is inherently done without consent…” Roske explained, seemingly arguing for the eradication of mankind by mass killing babies. “If abortion were mandatory for pregnant women, no new people would be born, and thus no new people would experience suffering. If no new people are born, humanity will end and thus human suffering will end. This would require no deaths of people already in existence, it would simply prevent new people from coming into existence. Over time, resources would become more plentiful, another benefit of this method.”

Roske was ratio’ed by more than 140 comments as opposed to 0 upvotes on the original post. Redditors lambasted Roske, a negative utilitarian who majored in philosophy at California State University-Northridge, for suggesting genocide as a means to permanently end human suffering within a generation’s time. “The suffering caused by the continued existence of humanity is of an incomprehensible magnitude…” Roske replied. “In order to end suffering on Earth we would have to destroy the possibility of all life on earth.”

Last year, Roske called for the redistribution of wealth in America on a leftist anti-capitalist subreddit. On “r/LateStageCapitalism,” Roske uploaded a pie chart of progressive causes that can be aided by $3.2 trillion from 400 of the richest Americans, including paying for paid annual family leave, wiping out delinquent medical debt, handing out $10,000 to every American household, and vaccinating “the world” against COVID-19. Roske also believes “America hates black people more than it loves guns,” per his last Reddit comment.

Roske’s FBI Aspirations and ‘Steadily Declining Mental State’

Back in 2019, Roske wrote in the Reddit peer-support community for users struggling with a depressive disorder: “I feel like my therapist has given up on me.” In the pair’s latest session, the counselor observed his patient’s “steadily declining mental state” and advised Roske to return to taking medicine to help remedy his “existential angst.” A year prior, Roske questioned on Reddit if medication helps with “intellectual anxiety.”

Some other Reddit posts indicated Roske was interested in joining the federal law enforcement agency that’s now investigating him. “Can you work for the FBI with Borderline Personality Disorder?” the suspect asked multiple times in the past year, once on the “r/MentalHealth” subreddit and again on the career-advice board. “I looked everywhere online and only found an article for agents on how to negotiate with people that have it. Don’t want to go through the whole training and application process to find out my illness disqualifies me.”

Not Sus At All: Stockpiling tactical gear and researching serial killers who almost got away with it

With the “Narrow_Frosting_1539” account, the most recently used, Roske authored a handful of eyebrow-raising Reddit posts in the mere weeks leading up to the alleged Kavanaugh assassination attempt. Roske appeared to make preparations to commit the crime in question like inquiring on May 24 through the “r/TacticalGear” subreddit about “a good place to get a kevlar vest,” which is bulletproof body armor.

An application for a warrant authorizing the search of the suspect’s cell phone shows that Roske admitted to crowdsourcing pointers online on how to carry out his plot. Roske told FBI agents that he used Reddit, Google, and other platforms “to learn the skills he thought were necessary to complete his plan,” the document says.

On the U.S. Marine Corps subreddit, the suspect also asked on May 30, days before the failed murder mission on June 8, “How difficult is it to covertly take out an HVT [the U.S. military term for a high-value target]?” Roske then apparently outlined key details of the plot targeting Kavanaugh’s residence: “A house in a medium-density residential area. Let’s say 1-4 people for security. Nightime. Some equipment but not cutting edge. So portable thermal imaging but not a whole surveillance team. So it would be one operator working essentially alone.”

According to a Maryland grand jury’s indictment, Roske was found to be in possession of a tactical chest rig equipped with pepper spray and a knife, hard-knuckled tactical gloves, lock-picking devices, a black face mask, a thermal-imaging monocular, in addition to a Glock pistol and ammunition plus a speed loader.

Roske pondered days earlier on May 20: “What will likely happen if the current Supreme Court remains? What would change if the [D]emocrats got a majority?” Noting that the leak of the Dobbs draft opinion garnered national attention around the Supreme Court and what the highest court in the U.S. “is capable of,” Roske wondered if SCOTUS “retains the same members, what is a realistic expectation for the future?” Roske poked around to hear the projected “immediate results” and the long-term effects of what would occur if “a conservative judge were replaced by a liberal judge, thus changing which party has the majority.”

On the “r/Forensics” subreddit, Roske claimed to be writing about a fictional killer who is “obsessed with not leaving evidence,” asking on May 17 what methods the character could use to get off scot-free. “I was curious what lengths someone like that would go to in order to avoid leaving evidence. I know of the obvious things like gloves, masks, shaving hair/hairnet, and duct-taping shoes. Are there other forms of evidence to consider? Are there more efficient ways of addressing the problems these methods attempt to solve?” Roske queried. An inventory search of Roske’s seized suitcase and backpack also discovered duct tape on hand. The suspect mentioned in the Reddit post’s comments that he “saw the duct tape thing in a movie” before.

A Redditor instructed Roske to leave his phone at home to evade cell tower data detection, a recommendation he soon ignored at the scene outside Kavanaugh’s house when the suspect called 911 to confess to Montgomery County Emergency Communications Center that he traveled from California to “kill a specific” Supreme Court justice over the Dobbs leak, according to an FBI affidavit supporting a criminal complaint. Later in police custody, Roske told a detective that he was ruminating about “how to give his life a purpose.”

Roske also asked on May 17 who was “the most careful” real-life serial killer. “By most careful I mean planned things out, very conscious of leaving evidence, purposefully trying to avoid having a pattern, etc. Ed Kemper comes to mind but I am curious is someone I haven’t heard of was known for this,” Roske said, invoking The Co-ed Killer, who decapitated his victims, performed oral sex on their severed heads, and raped their corpses.

A true-crime blogger pointed Roske, who was carrying zip ties and “burglary tools” when he was apprehended around 1:00 am that night, to serial burglar-turned-murderous rapist Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., best known as The Golden State Killer, whose break-in method was to enter a sleeping victim’s residence at night and threaten the target with a handgun. The victim was then bound with ligatures, blindfolded, and gagged.

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The one Redditor told Roske that DeAngelo placed plates in front of bedroom doors so he would be alerted if the homeowners were awakened. “I had heard of him but hadn’t looked into him. Sounds like he was very conscious of being caught,” Roske commented, adding an eerie compliment: “The plates are a nice touch.”

Overnight, in the early morning hours of May 14 on the “r/NeedAFriend” subreddit, Roske needed “a non-judgmental ear” to help him deal with “dark urges” as well as “recurring thoughts about taking vigilante actions and generally doing bad things to bad people,” according to a Reddit screenshot tweeted by Twitter account Reddit Lies. “I really don’t want to act on them but people’s disgust with me when I mention these ideas makes me feel even more alone and thus like I have nothing to lose. I can go into more specific detail in chat.”

It’s Just a Hypothetical, I Swear: *Searches ‘most effective place to stab someone,’ ‘supreme court’*

Under the feminist Reddit page “r/TwoXChromosomes,” Roske posted on May 10: “Would Kavanaugh being removed from the SC help women long term?” In response to a Redditor reasoning that a seat on the Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment, Roske retorted, “There is a way he could be removed.” Roske was prodded: “Would love to hear it. On what grounds?” Roske replied in a since-deleted comment: “The end of his life.”

Another user said that butchering the pro-life Supreme Court justice would turn Kavanaugh into a martyr and “hurt the pro-choice side immensely.” Roske engaged in the what-if scenario. “Why would he turn into a martyr? I meant if something unfortunate happened.” A third Redditor said Kavanaugh’s “just one of several justices responsible for overturning Roe v Wade, however,” further urging Roske: “You can’t stop at him. If you want to…remove them, you have to target them all. And tempting as it may be, I can’t think of a practical way to actually go after the conservative justices without it blowing up in your face. You’re welcome to try, though.”

The FBI affidavit filed in support of an application for a search warrant requested access to Roske’s two Discord accounts with the usernames “Sophie42#6535” and “AmericanSophie#1595.” An associate of Roske’s—referenced only as “Person #1” in the affidavit and identified by the suspect in an FBI interview—had provided federal agents access to a Discord chat log where the duo discussed the anticipated fall of Roe.

Roske’s discussions on Discord as cited in the FBI affidavit show that the suspect did indeed plan to target three Supreme Court justices, not just Kavanaugh. FBI agents discovered a damning Discord exchange dated May 25 between Roske, using the screen name “Sophie 42,” and the other individual that laid out the suspect’s plan to “stop roe v wade from being overturned” by “remov[ing] some people from the supreme court.” The person messaging Roske said, “Two dead judges ain’t gonna do nothing…You would die before you killed them all.” To which, Roske responded: “[Y]eah but I could get at least one, which would change the votes for decades to come, and I am shooting for 3.” Roske noted that “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.”

If that red flag wasn’t scarlet, then here’s one that bleeds crimson: Roske’s mobile search history between May 5 and June 8 includes queries such as “quietest semi auto rifle,” “Reagan assassination attempt,” “most effective place to stab someone,” “assassin skills,” “assassin equipment,” “assassinations,” “supreme court,” “how to be stealthy,” “gun lubricant,” and “supreme court,” among other search terms, per the FBI.

A review of Roske’s cellular web history revealed visits to the “Current Members” official biographies page of the Supreme Court’s website and the “List of assassinations” page on Wikipedia, the FBI affidavit says.