Suspect in Apparent Assassination Attempt on Trump was Near Golf Course for 12 Hours, Records Show

AP

10:18 JST, September 17, 2024

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The man suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump camped outside a Florida golf course with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours, lying in wait for the former president before a Secret Service agent thwarted the potential attack and opened fire, according to court documents filed Monday.

Ryan Wesley Routh did not fire any shots, never had Trump in his line of sight and sped away after an agent who spotted him shot in his direction, officials said. He was arrested in a neighboring county.

Routh, 58, appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach to face federal firearms charges, starting a criminal case in the final weeks of a presidential race already touched by violence and upheaval. Though no one was injured, the episode marked the second attempt on Trump’s life in as many months, raising questions about the security provided to him during a time of amped-up political rhetoric and what the Secret Service chief called an “unprecedented and hyper-dynamic threat environment.”

Even as Trump’s Republican allies and some Democrats demanded answers about how a would-be shooter was able to get so close to Trump, Ronald Rowe Jr., the Secret Service’s acting director, offered a fiery defense of the agents he said were “rising to this moment” despite needing additional resources.

“The men and women of the Secret Service, right now, we are redlining them, and they are rising to this moment, and they are meeting the challenges,” Rowe said, citing recent political conventions and other major events that required extensive protective details.

Authorities were continuing to examine Routh’s potential motive and movements in the days and weeks leading up to Sunday, when a Secret Service agent assigned to Trump’s security detail spotted a firearm poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing.

The agent fired, and Routh escaped into a sport utility vehicle, leaving behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food.

He had been at the golf course’s tree line from 1:59 a.m. to 2:31 p.m., according to an FBI affidavit that cited cellphone data to track his whereabouts. The FBI is investigating how long the Hawaii man had been in Florida, said Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office.

Coming just weeks after a July 13 shooting at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in which Trump was wounded by a gunman’s bullet, the latest assassination attempt accelerated concerns that violence continues to infect American presidential politics.

Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the November election, denounced the thwarted attack, with Harris saying in a post on X: “I am glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.”

The FBI has interviewed family members, friends and colleagues and is working to collect evidence. No motive has been disclosed, and Routh invoked his right to an attorney when questioned, authorities said.

Investigators are also examining Routh’s large online footprint, which suggests a man of evolving political viewpoints, including recently an apparent disdain for Trump, as well as intense outrage at global events concerning China and especially Ukraine.

“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in an apparently self-published 2023 book titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” which described the former president as a “fool” and “buffoon” for both the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and the “tremendous blunder” of leaving the Iran nuclear deal.

Routh wrote that he once voted for Trump and must take part of the blame for the “child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless.”

He also tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, and he had a website seeking to raise money and recruit volunteers to fight for Kyiv.

Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently voting in person during the state’s Democratic primary in March.

Routh also made 19 small donations totaling $140 since 2019 to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates, according to federal campaign finance records.

One of the two criminal counts alleges that he illegally possessed his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina. The other charge alleges that the weapon’s serial number was obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye, in violation of federal law.

His attorney declined to comment after Monday’s brief court appearance, when he was ordered to remain locked up after prosecutors argued that he was a flight risk.

Routh was the subject of a previously closed 2019 tip to the FBI that alleged that he was a felon in possession of a firearm, Veltri said. The FBI interviewed the tipster, who did not verify the initial information, he said. The FBI passed that information to local law enforcement in Honolulu.

The arrest focused fresh attention on the challenges of protecting Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, not only during campaign events but also when he is off the trail, often at his own clubs and properties. Sunday’s golf course outing was an off-the-record event, meaning in Secret Service terminology that it was not on Trump’s official calendar.

Even so, Rowe said, the Secret Service had in place the “highest levels of protection” as directed by Biden, including “counter sniper team elements” and “local tactical assets.”

The Trump shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, has made clear the need for a paradigm shift in how the Secret Service protects dignitaries, he said.

“We need to get out of a reactive model and get to a readiness model. There could be another geopolitical event that could put the United States into a kinetic conflict or some other issue that may result in additional responsibilities,” he said.