The US will seek to charge the man accused of hiding out with a gun near former president Donald Trump’s Florida golf course with attempting to assassinate a major political candidate, a federal prosecutor said on Monday.
The suspect, Ryan Routh (58), was ordered to remain in jail without bond to await trial on two gun-related charges. Prosecutor Mark Dispoto said the government will ask a grand jury to bring more serious charges against Mr Routh as prosecutors detailed the evidence collected against him, including a letter he allegedly wrote months before the incident referencing an “assassination attempt” on the Republican presidential candidate.
Mr Routh allegedly pointed a rifle through the tree line on September 15th while the former president was playing golf at his course in West Palm Beach, according to a criminal complaint. He has not yet entered a plea.
In a court filing released before the hearing, prosecutors said that several months prior to the incident, Mr Routh dropped off a handwritten letter addressed to “the world” that offered a bounty on Mr Trump.
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“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” the suspect wrote, according to the filing. “I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
The letter was found in a box handed over by an unidentified civilian witness that also included ammunition, a metal pipe and four phones, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said that when Mr Routh was arrested this month his car contained a handwritten list of dates in August, September and October of places where Mr Trump had appeared or was expected to appear. They said a search of his cell phone records showed that the devices had pinged towers near the Mr Trump International golf course where the incident took place and by the Mar-a-Lago resort where Mr Trump lives.
Mr Routh has been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
A US Secret Service agent spotted the weapon and fired in Mr Routh’s direction, causing the suspect to flee, according to the complaint. Mr Routh was later arrested along a Florida highway. US officials have said Mr Routh did not fire a shot during the encounter at the golf course and did not have a line of sight to Mr Trump, who was a few hundred meters away.
Authorities have not yet divulged a motive for the incident, which the FBI has said is being investigated as an apparent attempted assassination of Mr Trump ahead of the November 5th presidential election.
It came about two months after another gunman wounded Mr Trump on the ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That gunman was shot and killed by the Secret Service. The pair of incidents revealed the agency’s strains at a time of rising political threats and violence in the United States.
Mr Routh, a struggling roofing contractor who most recently lived in Hawaii, had a criminal history. He was a vocal supporter of Ukraine who was interviewed about his quixotic effort to recruit Afghans to fight against Russia’s invasion.
In a 2023 self-published book Mr Routh wrote that Iran was “free to assassinate Trump” for pulling the United States out of an international nuclear deal with Tehran during his presidency.
In December 2002, Mr Routh was convicted in North Carolina of possessing a weapon of mass death and destruction. He was also convicted of possessing stolen goods in 2010, according to court records.
Cell phone data showed that Mr Routh may have been waiting in the area for nearly 12 hours – from around 2am until about 1.30pm – when the gun was spotted, according to the criminal complaint. Investigators found a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope, a digital camera and a plastic bag with food at the scene, according to the complaint. – Reuters