These are documents made public on Monday, September 23 by the prosecution. They indicate that Ryan Routh, the man suspected of trying to kill Donald Trump in Florida, had expressed in writing for months his intention to assassinate the former American president. Ryan Routh, 58, was arrested on September 15 after being put on the run by Secret Service agents who had spotted him with a weapon near the golf course on which the Republican candidate for the White House was located, in Florida.
A judge in West Palm Beach court, where he appeared again on Monday, September 23, ordered his continued detention. He is currently charged with illegal possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon with an obliterated serial number. But the prosecution announced at the hearing Monday that it would ask that he also be charged with “attempted murder,” which carries a possible life sentence.
“It is now up to you to finish the job.”
Prosecutors said they received a cardboard box from an acquaintance of Routh that Routh had left at his home several months ago. After learning of the alleged assassination attempt, the witness opened the box, according to the filing. It contained “ammunition, a metal pipe, various building materials, tools, four phones and various letters,” including a handwritten letter that read: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am sorry I failed.” “It is now up to you to finish the job and I will offer $150,000 to anyone who completes it,” the suspect added in the document. Prosecutors have not said whether the assassination attempt referred to in the letter is the one that failed on Sept. 15, or whether the suspect was referring to an earlier plan.
Ryan Routh apparently blames Donald Trump for causing chaos in the Middle East by sabotaging the international agreement with Iran on its nuclear program in 2018. The former president “terminated relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has collapsed,” the letter charges, as CNN notes. In a self-published book published in February 2023 about the war in Ukraine, Routh also discussed a plan “to assassinate Donald Trump,” prosecutors added. In it, the suspect told Iran: “You are free to assassinate Donald Trump.”
In online posts, often focused on American politics and world events, Routh has also indicated that he voted for Donald Trump in 2016, before becoming disappointed with the former White House tenant, adding: “I’ll be happy when you’re gone.”
“Sniper’s Nest”
According to the FBI’s analysis of Routh’s phone tracking, the suspect had been in West Palm Beach since August 18 and his devices were located multiple times between that date and September 15 near Donald Trump’s golf course and his Mar-a-Lago residence. Before being spotted and put on the run, he had also spent nearly 12 hours around the golf club, the prosecution said last week.
As CNN reports, during the hearing Monday, prosecutor Mark Dispoto said Routh traveled to West Palm Beach “for one reason only: to kill the former president of the United States.” Routh had a “clear line of fire” from his “sniper’s nest” near the chain-link fence surrounding Trump International Golf Club, Dispoto said. The prosecutor added that Trump was on the fifth hole, 12 to 15 minutes away from the sixth hole, when the gunshots rang out. “It was an easy shot,” Dispoto said.
While searching Routh’s car, officers found six cell phones, one of which included “a Google search for how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.” “Officers also found 12 pairs of gloves, a Hawaiian driver’s license in the defendant’s name, and a passport in the defendant’s name,” the filing further states.
On the more political front, Donald Trump is demanding that the case be investigated by the authorities of Florida, a state governed by Republican Ron DeSantis, and not by the federal authorities that the Republican candidate for the November presidential election accuses of being manipulated by his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. “The charges brought against this crazed murderer amount to a simple slap on the wrist,” Donald Trump denounced in a statement. He accused the Department of Justice and the federal police of “minimizing” and “mishandling” the case.