Ryan W. Routh, suspected of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump, appears in federal court in West Palm Beach
Trump suspect to appear in court on attempted assassination charge
Reuters: WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - The man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump after allegedly positioning himself with a rifle outside one of the former president’s Florida golf courses is due to appear in court on Monday to enter a plea to five federal charges.
Ryan Routh, 58, is expected to plead not guilty to charges that include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate. He has already been ordered to remain in jail to await a trial.
Prosecutors allege Routh intended to kill Trump as he golfed at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15. Routh, a struggling roofing contractor, condemned the Republican presidential candidate in a self-published book and dropped off a letter left months earlier with an associate referencing an attempted assassination on Trump, prosecutors allege.
"This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you," the suspect wrote, according to a court filing by prosecutors.
Lawyers for Routh suggested at a Sept. 23 court hearing that the letter may have been an attempt at gaining publicity and highlighted what they called Routh’s efforts to promote democracy in Ukraine and Taiwan.
Routh hid outside a fence overlooking the sixth hole of the course, where authorities found an AK-47-style rifle, a bag of snacks, a digital camera and bags containing metal plates meant to withstand return fire by the U.S. Secret Service, according to prosecutors.
A Secret Service agent patrolling the course ahead of Trump spotted Routh and opened fire after noticing the rifle sticking through a fence. Routh fled and was later arrested along a Florida highway, prosecutors allege.
He was initially charged with gun-related offenses. An indictment last week added the attempted assassination charge along with assault on a federal officer and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
The Florida incident was the second apparent assassination attempt on Trump in a roughly two-month span, raising questions about protection of the candidate ahead of the Nov. 5 election. A gunman wounded Trump's right ear and killed an attendee at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Trump has sought to turn the assassination attempts into a campaign issue, alleging the Justice Department, which charged Trump in two criminal cases last year, should not be trusted to handle the investigation.
In World
-
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused Ukraine of using Western-supplied long-range missiles to attack Russian territory, prompting Moscow to test a new medium-range missile system dubbed "Hazel."
-
Russia said on Thursday that a new U.S. ballistic missile defence base in northern Poland will lead to an increase in the overall level of nuclear danger, but Warsaw said "threats" from Moscow only strengthened the argument for NATO defences.
-
Britain and Romania offered their support to Moldova on Wednesday in tackling the effects of Russia's 1,000-day-old invasion of neighbouring Ukraine as London signed a new security and defence partnership agreement with the ex-Soviet state.
-
The United States on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the war in Gaza because it was not linked to an immediate release of hostages taken captive by Hamas militants in Israel in October 2023.
Leave a review