Ryan Routh has been formally charged with attempted murder, allegedly aimed at Donald Trump
The man accused of robbing Donald Trump’s golf course in Florida at gunpoint has been charged with attempted murder of the political candidate, US prosecutors said.
Ryan Routh, 58, was already facing two gun-related charges after authorities said he pointed a gun at a fence at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sept. 15 while the Republican presidential candidate was playing golf there.
Routh was ordered to remain in jail to await trial.
“The Department of Justice will not tolerate the violence that strikes at the heart of so many of us, and we will find and hold accountable those who perpetrate it. This must be stopped,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement.
The U.S. Department of Justice said a Miami grand jury returned the case Tuesday afternoon. Attempted murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The case was handed to US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed a criminal case in July accusing Trump of illegally keeping classified documents after he left office.
No plea was filed by the suspect
Routh has yet to apply. His lawyers were unsuccessful in demanding that he be released on bond.
In recent days, prosecutors have presented evidence that they say points to a plot to kill Trump. They allege that months before the incident, Routh wrote a letter to an unknown person about an “assassination attempt on Donald Trump.”
Front burner20:15Who is suspected of being the second assassin of Trump?
Former US President Donald Trump was playing golf on his golf course in Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday afternoon when the Secret Service said they saw a gun barrel in the woods. It was what they believe to be the second possible assassination attempt on Trump in just two months. The suspect, who was arrested after a short chase, was Ryan Welsey Routh: a 58-year-old from North Carolina who was interviewed in the past about trying to recruit Afghan fighters to join the war in Ukraine. Marin Cogan, a senior reporter for Vox, takes us through what happened, what else we know about the suspect and the tinderbox of America’s most divided and most armed. For Front Burner documentation, please visit: []
They said Routh spent a month in South Florida, and cellphone data showed him near a golf course and Trump’s Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago. He was found in possession of a handwritten list of dates and places where Trump spoke or was expected to appear, according to court documents.
A US Secret Service agent who was searching the golf course ahead of Trump opened fire after finding the gun lodged in a fence, prompting Routh to flee, prosecutors said. He was arrested within an hour on a Florida highway.
Routh was initially charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number.
The incident in Florida came two months after a separate gunman shot Trump during a July rally at a Pennsylvania battlefield. Trump suffered an ear injury, and a gunman was shot and killed at the event. One attending the meeting was killed and two others were injured.
These dramatic events took place during Trump’s third presidential campaign, following his 2016 primary effort that sent him to Washington and the 2020 campaign in which he was defeated by US President Joe Biden.
This time, Trump is facing the Democratic Alliance ticket led by US Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as his party’s presidential nominee.
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