Feds say they will charge Ryan Wesley Routh with attempting to assassinate Trump, as gunman is held without bail
Federal prosecutors said they’re working to charge Ryan Wesley Routh with attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump — as the alleged golf course gunman was held without bond on Monday.
Routh appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida Monday morning for a three-hour hearing — where Judge Ryon McCabe sided with prosecutors that Routh should be kept behind bars until his trial because the “weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong.”
He currently faces only charges related to the SKS assault rifle that was found in a sniper nest at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach, where he allegedly camped out for nearly 12 hours on Sept. 15 before being spotted by a Secret Service agent.
During the hearing, prosecutor Mark Dispoto told the judge his office will be asking a grand jury to consider whether Routh should be indicted for trying to “assassinate a major political candidate.”
In a campaign email later Monday, Trump said the charges against Routh are a “slap on the wrist,” and accused the Justice Department and FBI under President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of “mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July.”
At a campaign event in Pennsylvania on July 13, Thomas Matthew Crooks shot and wounded Trump. The 20-year-old shooter was killed by the Secret Service after.
Trump called for the case to be handled by Florida’s law enforcement, rather than the federal government, claiming the DOJ and FBI have a conflict of interest prosecuting Routh’s case.
“If the DOJ and FBI cannot do their job honestly and without bias, and hold the aspiring assassin responsible to the full extent of the Law, Governor Ron DeSantis and the State of Florida have already agreed to take the lead on the investigation and prosecution,” Trump’s statement continued.
“Florida charges would be much more serious than the ones the FBI has announced. The TRUTH would be followed, wherever it leads.”
Earlier Monday morning, prosecutors released a letter in which Routh allegedly admitted he was going to try to kill the 2024 presidential Republican nominee and encouraged others to also attempt to assassinate Trump.
Routh, 58, was arrested on Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent saw the muzzle of an SKS assault rifle poking through the shrubbery outside the Trump International Golf Club last Sunday.
The agent opened fire on him before the would-be assassin was able to shoot Trump, prosecutors say.
Routh, who lives in Hawaii, dropped the firearm and fled the scene, leaving behind a slew of other evidence including two backpacks and a GoPro camera. He was caught and arrested 40 minutes later.
The feds told the judge that Routh should be remanded arguing that he’s too dangerous to allowed to remain free.
In fact, Rough allegedly penned a chilling note months prior addressed “To the World” in which he stated: “this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you.”
“I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster,” the letter read. “It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
The note was placed in a box that also contained “ammunition, a metal pipe, miscellaneous building materials, tools, four phones” and other letters. The container was dropped at the home of an unidentified person — who turned the contents over to investigators after Routh’s arrest.
Dispoto said the letters show “substantial evidence of his intent … That’s the message he wanted to send to the world in advance of this incident.”
Prosecutors also said that cellphone records showed that Routh had visited the golf club and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate “on multiple days and times” from Aug. 18 to the day of the shooting attempt.
And when they searched Routh’s car they found six cellphones — one of which had a Google search for how to get from the Palm Beach area to Mexico.
The feds also found a list of dates for the months of August, September and October showing where Trump either had made public appearances or where he was going to be appearing.
Routh’s lawyer, Kristy Militello, asked the judge to allow her client to live with his sister in Greensboro, North Carolina, arguing that the feds didn’t sufficiently prove he was a danger to the community — and noting he’d made his court appearances in prior cases.
Routh is charged with illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the first charge.
Routh has two prior North Carolina convictions, including a 2002 conviction for possession of a weapon of mass destruction after he was caught with a bomb during a police standoff and a 2010 conviction on multiple counts of possession of stolen goods.
With Post wires
