Law enforcement personnel continue to investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club after an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Sept. 16, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that the man who allegedly stalked former President Donald Trump for a month before aiming his rifle through a fence at Trump’s private golf course on Sept. 15 was indicted on the charge of an attempted assassination of a political candidate.
The Justice Department said a federal grand jury in Miami late Tuesday returned an indictment charging Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of attempting to kill the GOP presidential nominee while at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“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,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate violence that strikes at the heart of our democracy, and we will find and hold accountable those who perpetrate it. This must stop,” Garland said.
The maximum sentence for the attempted assassination charge is a life sentence. Routh remains in pretrial detention.
The case is being handled by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who previously dismissed criminal charges against Trump related to illegally allegedly keeping classified documents after he left the presidency. Cannon was appointed by Trump to the federal bench.
Prosecutors on Monday detailed that Routh stalked Trump for a month, noting events Trump would be at, and wrote a note where he offered $150,000 to anyone who could “finish the job,” according to court filings.
This is now officially the second assassination attempt against Trump, after the first one in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump sustained an injury to his ear. He was not injured at his Florida golf club.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe confirmed that Routh did not fire his weapon and that the gunshots heard were from a Secret Service agent who saw part of Routh’s gun poking out from the chain link fence and immediately fired.
Routh has already been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and with obliterating the serial number on a firearm, according to court records. With those charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Former President Donald Trump walks to speak to the media after being found guilty following his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)
This story has been updated
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors Monday said the man accused of trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his private golf club in Florida stalked the GOP presidential nominee for a month and in a note offered $150,000 to anyone who could “finish the job,” according to a new court filing.
Federal prosecutors detailed how Ryan Routh left a handwritten note that criticized Trump’s policy in the Middle East, specifically ending U.S. involvement in the Iran nuclear deal.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” read the note, according to the court filing. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
Prosecutors said cell phone records showed Routh was located near “Trump International and the former President’s residence at Mar-a-Lago” from Aug. 18 until Sept. 15 — the day of the attempted assassination.
Law enforcement officers also found in their search of Routh’s car, after he was detained, a “handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October 2024 and venues where the former President had appeared or was expected to be present,” according to the court filing.
However, Florida’s Republican state Attorney General Ashley Moody is challenging the FBI’s jurisdiction as lead agency in the investigation.
In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, she argues that because Trump is a Florida resident, the Sunshine State “understandably desires to investigate violations of its own laws, including attempted murder.”
Moody also urged Wray that the FBI and Department of Justice not invoke U.S. code that would suspend state and local jurisdiction in a federal investigation, and instead allow Florida authorities to have access to evidence of the shooting.
“To be clear, I believe it would be a grave mistake for the federal government to invoke this provision, and I urge you to cooperate with the State’s investigation rather than seek to frustrate it,” she wrote.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has also argued that Florida should conduct its own investigation. He signed an executive order last week to assign the incident to the Office of Statewide Prosecutor, which Moody will supervise.
Trump issued a lengthy statement late Monday that criticized the Department of Justice and FBI and accused the agencies of “mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July.”
“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 said in a statement. “Florida charges would be much more serious than the ones the FBI has announced.”
The new court filing came in advance of Routh’s Monday court appearance in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Last week, Routh was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and with obliterating the serial number on a firearm, according to court records. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Law enforcement agents stand near the stage of a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe told reporters on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, that the agency takes responsibility for the failures that resulted in an assassination attempt on Trump there that day. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service has taken responsibility for the failures that resulted in the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and is asking for more resources going forward, a top official said Friday.
Acting Director Ronald Rowe briefed reporters on the agency’s findings following an investigation into how a gunman was able to scale a nearby roof and fire multiple shots at Trump during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler. Trump sustained an injury to his right ear, and one spectator was killed while two others were seriously injured.
“It’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13, and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” Rowe said.
The investigation revealed communication “deficiencies” between law enforcement personnel and an “overreliance on mobile devices, resulting in information being siloed,” Rowe said, highlighting that vital information about the shooter was transmitted via phone instead of over the Secret Service radio network.
The investigation also uncovered “complacency” among some staff members who visited the site ahead of time but did not escalate to supervisors their concerns over “line of sight issues,” Rowe said.
“The findings of the Mission Assurance review have prompted the Secret Service to move into the accountability phase of this process,” he said, referring to the agency’s title of its investigation.
“What has become clear to me is we need a shift in paradigm in how we conduct our protective operations. As was demonstrated on Sunday in West Palm Beach, the threat level is evolving,” Rowe said.
“This increased operational tempo requires additional resources to not only account for costs being incurred today, but ensure that we have the tools, technology and personnel needed to meet these new requirements and execute our mission going forward,” he said.
Second attempt to harm Trump
The investigation’s conclusions were revealed less than a week after a second attempt on Trump’s life. On Sunday the Secret Service thwarted a gunman’s attempt to aim a high-powered rifle at the former president while he was playing golf on his West Palm Beach, Florida, property.
The incidents prompted unanimous U.S. House support for a measure to grant presidential and vice presidential candidates the same security level as the officeholders. The proposal sailed through the lower chamber Friday in a 405-0 vote.
On Monday a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the July attempted assassination in Pennsylvania announced an expansion of its purview to also probe Sunday’s attempt in Florida. The task force will hold its first hearing Thursday.
Rowe said the agency has been providing the “highest levels” of protections for presidential candidates since the July 13 assassination attempt.
That increased level of protection is working, Rowe told reporters, recounting how an agent swept the area ahead of Trump and “took steps to neutralize that threat.”
“No shot was fired at the former president. The former president was not exposed to where he was on the golf course,” he said.
Extending that level of protection means the agency is “burning through a lot of assets and resources.”
“This isn’t pie in the sky, trying to say ‘Hey, we want this now.’ We are not capitalizing on a crisis,” Rowe said.
Rowe would not disclose an additional dollar amount the agency is seeking and said conversations with congressional appropriators are “ongoing.”
“The threat is not going to evaporate anytime soon, and so we have to be prepared for this. And that is the argument that we have been making. We have certainly made some inroads, and we’re having these productive conversations with the Hill,” he said.
Rowe was appointed as the agency’s acting director after former Director Kimberly Cheatle heeded loud cries for her resignation, stepping down 10 days after the attempt on Trump’s life in July.
Rowe would not detail who or how many in the agency will face discipline, citing federal regulations preventing him from discussing it further.
“What I will tell you is that I have not asked for anybody to retire. I know some of that was reported. That is false,” Rowe said. Rowe said the agency’s offices of Integrity and Professional Responsibility will together decide any discipline in accordance with the agency’s “table of penalties.”
Law enforcement personnel continued to investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club on Monday after an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump a day earlier. The FBI is leading the investigation and has said the incident “appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump” while he was golfing at his West Palm Beach, Florida, club. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Ryan Wesley Routh appeared in federal court Monday on two firearm charges after being apprehended by local law enforcement Sunday in what the FBI is investigating as a possible assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
Authorities found a rifle in an area Routh was seen fleeing on Sunday, but acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe said Monday that Routh did not fire his weapon. Trump was unharmed, his campaign confirmed shortly after Sunday’s incident.
The Secret Service agent who spotted someone holding a rifle near the treeline of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, fired toward the suspect. Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, was golfing at the time.
The incident is being investigated as the second assassination attempt against Trump in two months. He sustained an injury to his ear during a shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
The Trump campaign Monday blamed Democrats and the media for the shooting.
“Democrats and the Fake News must immediately cease their inflammatory, violent rhetoric against President Trump — which was mimicked by yesterday’s would-be assassin,” the campaign said in a statement.
Routh, 58, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe in West Palm Beach federal court and was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and for obliterating the serial number on a firearm, according to court records. If convicted, he would face up to 20 years in prison.
A detention hearing on the federal charges is set for Sept. 23, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Initial investigation
According to an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint, at 1:31 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, a Secret Service agent walking the perimeter of the golf course spotted a rifle poking out of the tree line. The agent fired toward the rifle.
Rowe said at a Monday press conference that Routh did not have a line of vision at the former president and he did not fire his weapon.
“The agent who was visually sweeping the area … saw the subject armed with what he perceived to be a rifle and immediately discharged his firearm,” Rowe said. “The subject, who did not have line of sight to the former president, fled the scene. He did not fire or get off any shots at our agents.”
Routh fled in a Nissan SUV, according to the charging documents. A witness took photos of the license plate and local law enforcement officers stopped the vehicle in Martin County, which borders Palm Beach County.
West Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the witness was able to identify the driver as “the person that he saw running out of the bushes that jumped into the car.”
Routh was the sole person in the vehicle, according to the complaint.
According to the charging documents, agents found at the site Routh fled a digital camera, two bags, an SKS-style 7.62 x 39 rifle, which is the predecessor to the AK-47 assault rifle that law enforcement initially said they found Sunday, and a scope.
They also found a bag of food and noticed the rifle had the serial number obliterated “to the naked eye,” according to the filing documents.
The weapon also must have crossed state lines, Thomas noted.
“SKS-style 7.62 x 39 caliber rifles are not manufactured in the state of Florida,” Thomas wrote. “Therefore, I submit that there is probable cause to believe that the SKS-style rifle, which was seized from the tree line at Trump International… traveled in interstate or foreign commerce.”
The officers who stopped Routh on Interstate-95 noted that the license plate associated with the Nissan is registered to a 2012 white Ford truck that was reported stolen, according to the complaint.
Law enforcement found a July 10 Facebook post in which Routh directed his followers to contact him on WhatsApp and listed a contact number, according to the complaint.
Phone records associated with that number indicated that the phone “was located in the vicinity of the area along the tree line described from 1:59 a.m. Eastern to 1:31 p.m. Sunday,” according to the complaint.
Secret Service response
The incident follows the July 13 assassination attempt of Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which the Secret Service was heavily criticized for its response.
The leaders of that task force, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, Republican of Pennsylvania, and U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, have requested a briefing from the Secret Service on the security response to the shooting in West Palm Beach.
Members of Congress have been more complimentary of the Secret Service’s response to the Florida incident.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, commended the agency’s response during an interview with “Fox and Friends” on Monday.
“What I understand happened is that those agents that were with him yesterday saw that barrel of that gun between the bushes on a golf course. I mean, you know, that’s a difficult thing to spot. Thankfully, they did,” Johnson said. “But unlike in Butler, they did not pause. They immediately pulled their weapons and fired. I think that’s why this guy, the suspect, the shooter, threw the gun in the bushes and ran.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said on the Senate floor Monday that senators are open to giving the Secret Service more funding in legislation this month needed to keep the government open past Sept. 30.
“If the Secret Service is in need of more resources, we are prepared to provide it for them,” he said. “Possibly in the upcoming funding agreement.”
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said Sunday they’d been briefed on the matter and condemned political violence.
Prior arrests, Ukraine activism
In 2002, Routh was convicted in Greensboro, North Carolina, for possession of a weapon of mass destruction, which is a felony in the state. He was arrested after fleeing law enforcement and barricading himself for three hours in a business, according to the Greensboro News & Record.
He was also arrested in North Carolina in 2010 for possession of stolen goods.
Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Miami field office, said during a Monday press conference that the FBI is conducting interviews with family and friends in Honolulu and Charlotte, North Carolina.
He added that in 2019 the FBI received a tip that Routh possessed a firearm, which was illegal because of his felony record. When FBI agents followed up, the tipster “did not verify providing the initial information,” Veltri said.
The agency referred the matter to Honolulu police, he said.
Routh was interviewed by The New York Times last year about his efforts to recruit Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine’s war against Russia.
Routh, who had spent time in Ukraine and does not have any U.S. military experience, said he had planned to illegally obtain documents to move those Afghan fighters from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine.
He wrote an ebook that he published on Amazon Kindle about his time in Ukraine, during which he became disillusioned about the country’s ability to win its war against Russia.
Kathleen Shaffer, who said Routh was her fiancé, set up a GoFundMe in 2022 to help Routh travel to Ukraine for 90 days to fight in the war.
“Any and all funds will support purchase of additional flags, tactical gear, any supplies needed for incoming volunteers, and hostel lodging,” according to the fundraiser, which raised $1,865 out of its goal of $2,500.
States Newsroom called a number associated with Shaffer, but could not reach her.
Public records show Routh currently lives in Kaaawa on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
The South Portico of the White House is seen Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
WASHINGTON — The presidential campaigns are rushing ahead this week without missing a beat, despite numerous law enforcement agencies investigating a possible assassination attempt Sunday on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, was looking to pick up an endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters during a private sit-down interview with the organization on Monday before heading to several campaign stops later this week.
Trump, the GOP nominee, whose campaign is fundraising off a gunman putting an AK-47 through the fence at his Florida golf course before being confronted by the Secret Service, is expected to continue his regular schedule.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, will be on the campaign trail as well, after making headlines this weekend when he seemingly admitted making up a story about Haitian immigrants in Ohio before doubling down on the false claim.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said during a combative interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Vance then insisted that he’s repeating concerns from his constituents, despite public officials and police officers in Ohio saying there’s no evidence of immigrants eating geese or cats.
“I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it,” Vance added.
Vance’s comments and repeated criticism of Harris came shortly after her campaign released a list of 17 Reagan administration officials endorsing her bid for the Oval Office.
“Our votes in this election are less about supporting the Democratic Party and more about our resounding support for democracy,” they wrote. “It’s our hope that this letter will signal to other Republicans and former Republicans that supporting the Democratic ticket this year is the only path forward toward an America that is strong and viable for our children and grandchildren for years to come.”
Ken Adelman, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and U.S. arms control director; Carol Adelman, USAID assistant administrator; Robert Thompson, senior staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers; Gahl Burt, White House social secretary; B. Jay Cooper, deputy assistant to the president; Kathleen Shanahan, a staff assistant at the National Security Council; and Pete Souza, official White House photographer were among those from the Reagan administration to publicly voice their support for Harris.
NABJ chat, stops in swing states
Tuesday’s campaign schedule shows a packed day of public events for all the major campaign names.
Harris is expected to attend a fireside chat with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, months after Trump’s on-stage panel interview with three NABJ journalists stirred up controversy within the organization and made headlines for Trump’s responses to their questions.
Trump will host a town hall in Flint, Michigan moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former press secretary, during the evening. Trump also abruptly announced an XSpaces event for Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on the social media platform.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, running mate to Harris, is expected to attend events in Macon and Atlanta, Georgia. He’ll then head to Asheville, North Carolina to give a stump speech.
Vance is expected to speak at a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood will hear arguments on whether Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s name should be removed from Michigan’s ballot.
“Before a court may issue a temporary restraining order, it should be assured that the movant has produced compelling evidence of irreparable and imminent injury and that the movant has exhausted reasonable efforts to give the adverse party notice,” Hood wrote.
Kennedy, who suspended his bid for the Oval Office last month, had requested an immediate ruling, which the judge denied.
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