Alleged Trump gunman wrote of ‘assassination attempt’, prosecutors say

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: The US will seek to charge the man accused of hiding out with a gun near former President Donald Trump’s Florida golf course with attempting to assassinate a major political candidate, a federal prosecutor said on Monday.
The suspect, Ryan Routh, 58, was ordered to remain in jail without bond to await trial on two gun-related charges.
Prosecutor Mark Dispoto said the government will ask a grand jury to bring more serious charges against Routh, as prosecutors detailed the evidence collected against him, including a letter he allegedly wrote months before the incident referencing an “assassination attempt” on the Republican presidential candidate.
Routh allegedly pointed a rifle through the tree line on Sep 15 while the former president was playing golf at his course in West Palm Beach, according to a criminal complaint. He has not yet entered a plea.
In a court filing released before the hearing, prosecutors said that several months prior to the incident, Routh dropped off a handwritten letter addressed to “the world” that offered a bounty on Trump.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” the suspect wrote, according to the filing. “I will offer US$150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
The letter was found in a box handed over by an unidentified civilian witness that also included ammunition, a metal pipe and four phones, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said that when Routh was arrested this month his car contained a handwritten list of dates in August, September and October of places where Trump had appeared or was expected to appear.
They said a search of his cellphone records showed that the devices had pinged towers near the Trump International golf course where the incident took place and by the Mar-a-Lago resort where Trump lives.
Routh has been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
A US Secret Service agent spotted the weapon and fired in Routh’s direction, causing the suspect to flee, according to the complaint. Routh was later arrested along a Florida highway. US officials have said Routh did not fire a shot during the encounter at the golf course and did not have a line of sight to Trump, who was a few hundred yards away.
Authorities have not yet divulged a motive for the incident, which the FBI has said is being investigated as an apparent attempted assassination of Trump ahead of the Nov 5 presidential election.
It came about two months after another gunman wounded Trump on the ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That gunman was shot and killed by the Secret Service.
The pair of incidents revealed the agency’s strains at a time of rising political threats and violence in the United States.
Authorities have not yet divulged a motive for the incident, which the FBI has said is being investigated as an apparent attempted assassination of Trump ahead of the Nov 5 presidential election.