WASHINGTON – A person who authorities said spent 12 hours watching Donald Trump at his Florida golf course and texting him that he desired to kill him was charged with attempted murder on Tuesday.
Ryan Wesley Routh was initially charged with two gun violations. The amended charges in a five-count indictment reflect the Justice Department's assessment that he systematically planned the Republican nominee's assassination by aiming a rifle through the bushes surrounding Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach one afternoon when Trump was playing there. Routh left a note describing his intent, prosecutors said.
According to court records, the case was assigned to Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge who has come under intense criticism for her handling of a criminal case accusing Trump of illegally stockpiling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She dismissed the case in July, a call that special counsel Jack Smith's team is now appealing.
The attempted murder charge had already been hinted at during a court hearing on Monday, where prosecutors successfully argued that 58-year-old Routh needs to be kept behind bars because he’s a flight risk and a threat to public safety.
They claimed he had written down his plans to kill Trump in a handwritten note months before his September 15 arrest. In it, he described his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 to anyone who could “finish the job.” The note was present in a box that Routh apparently left at the house of an unidentified witness months before his arrest.
The person opened the letter, photographed the front page of the letter, addressed it to “Dear World” and contacted law enforcement authorities after the attack.
Prosecutors also said Routh kept a handwritten list in his automobile of the venues where Trump had appeared or was expected to attend in August, September and October.
The charge of attempted murder of a significant presidential candidate carries a possible life sentence if convicted. Other charges within the indictment include assault on a federal officer, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a criminal offense of violence and the 2 original weapons offenses he faced last week.
The potential shootout was thwarted when a member of Trump's Secret Service security staff spotted a partially obscured man's face and a gun barrel protruding through the golf course fence in front of Trump's field. The agent fired within the direction of Routh, who sped away and was stopped by police in a neighboring county.
Although Routh didn’t fire any shots and didn’t have Trump in his sights, officials said, he left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS rifle with a scope and a plastic bag of food.
The arrest got here two months after Trump was shot and injured within the ear during an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service acknowledged failings within the lead-up to the shooting but said security forces had worked as intended to forestall a possible attack in Florida.
A criminal grievance initially charged Routh with illegal possession of a firearm despite multiple convictions and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. It is common for prosecutors to file preliminary and simply provable charges upon an arrest after which add more serious offenses because the investigation progresses.
The FBI initially said it was investigating the incident as an apparent attempted murder, however the immediate filing of charges opened the door for Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, to announce his own state-level investigation, which he said could lead on to more serious charges.
Trump sought to sow doubts in regards to the legitimacy of the investigation and the Justice Department usually. On Monday – before the attempted murder charge was filed – he complained that federal prosecutors were “mishandling and downplaying” the case by bringing charges that amounted to a “slap on the wrist.”
Asked about Trump's criticism at an independent press conference on Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department would “spare no resources to hold those responsible in this case accountable.”
The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities found six cell phones during a search of Routh's automobile, considered one of which displayed a Google seek for directions from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
A notebook present in his automobile was stuffed with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments, in addition to notes on how one can get entangled within the war on behalf of Ukraine.
In addition, prosecutors cited a book Routh wrote last yr by which he sharply criticized Trump's approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In the book, he wrote that Iran had “the freedom to assassinate Trump” because he withdrew from the nuclear deal.
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