In the wake of an incident at former President Donald Trump’s golf property in West Palm Beach, Florida on September 15, Ryan Routh has been charged with attempting to kill the former president.
Late on Tuesday, a Miami grand jury returned the indictment. In addition to the firearms charges Routh is presently facing, the indictment adds three more counts. Apart from his attempt to kill a presidential candidate, he is also accused of attacking a federal officer and carrying a firearm in support of a violent crime. The federal officer was the Secret Service agent who found him hiding among the trees at the West Palm Beach Golf Club, where the former president once held office, earlier this month.
A maximum sentence of life in prison is imposed for the attempted assassination charge.
Routh was already facing charges of having a handgun in the custody of a convicted felon and destroying a gun’s serial number.
“Violence targeting public officials endangers everything our country stands for, and the Department of Justice will use every available tool to hold Ryan Routh accountable for the attempted assassination of former President Trump charged in the indictment,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Authorities stated in a court filing and hearing on Monday that Routh’s cell phone records demonstrate that on September 15, he waited for about twelve hours outside Trump’s golf course’s fence line. While Trump was playing, a Secret Service agent noticed a rifle barrel pointing in the agent’s direction while conducting a security sweep a hole ahead of the Republican presidential contender. After the agent opened fire, according to the prosecution, Routh ran away and was apprehended on a nearby freeway. Routh never discharged the gun, according to the authorities.
According to mobile phone data, investigators eventually learnt that Routh had been in Florida a month prior to the incident and had spent time scoping out Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and the golf course. Additionally, prosecutors produced a letter that Routh had allegedly written months prior in which he expressed his desire to kill Donald Trump.
Aileen Cannon, a federal judge nominated during the Trump Administration, has been given the case. She is the same judge presiding over Special Counsel Jack Smith’s trial of the former president in Mar-a-Lago over secret documents. After multiple decisions for which she has drawn harsh criticism, she dismissed the case. Her ruling has been appealed by the Special Counsel.
Cannon was chosen at random to take on the Routh case.
Due to several federal cases that are still pending against the former president, Donald Trump expressed dissatisfaction earlier this week regarding Routh’s prosecution being handled by the federal government. In a press conference last week, Governor Ron DeSantis demanded that the state of Florida take the lead in the prosecution, citing a conflict of interest on the part of the federal government.
