US charges Ryan Routh with attempted assassination of Donald Trump
US Federal prosecutors have announced that the individual accused of stalking former President Donald Trump for a month prior to attempting to shoot through a fence at Trump’s private golf course on September 15 has been charged with an attempted assassination of a political candidate.
The Justice Department has stated that a federal grand jury in Miami on Tuesday, September 24, returned an indictment charging Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, with 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 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 on President Trump, following the initial one in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he sustained an injury to his ear but was not harmed at his Florida golf club.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe has confirmed that the Secret Service agent, Robert Routh, did not shoot his weapon. Instead, the gunshots were a response to a Secret Service agent who observed a portion of Routh’s firearm protruding from the chain-link fence and immediately discharged.
Robert Routh has already been charged with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and with tampering with the serial number of a firearm, as reported in court documents. With these charges, he could face up to 20 years in prison.