“This Was An Assassination Attempt On Donald Trump”: Suspect Left A Letter Outlining Plans
The man arrested last week in an apparent assassination attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump wrote of his plans in a letter months earlier, prosecutors said in a court filing today.
The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, had dropped off a box at an unidentified witness’ home several months ago that included a letter addressed “Dear World,” in which Routh wrote, “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
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Apparently referring to Trump, Routh added, “He ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled.”
The witness had contacted law enforcement on Sept. 18, three days after the incident at Trump International, to inform them of the box. It also included ammunition, a metal pipe, miscellaneous building materials, tools, four phones and various letters, according to prosecutors.
A Secret Service agent scouting ahead as Trump played a round of golf spotted “a long black object protruding through the fence and realized the object was the barrel of a rifle aimed directly at him,” according to prosecutors.
The agent then jumped out of his golf cart, “drew his weapon, and began backing away. The Agent saw the rifle barrel move, and the Agent fired at Routh.”
“The Agent took cover behind a tree and reloaded his weapon, then looked up and saw that Routh was gone,” prosecutors said. “The Agent called out over his radio that shots had been fired by the Agent and that there was a subject with a rifle.”
Prosecutors said that Routh fled in a black Nissan Xterra, but was apprehended in nearby Martin County.
Routh has so far been charged with two gun offenses. He is scheduled to appear in court today for a pretrial detention hearing.
In the latest filing, prosecutors also said that an FBI analysis showed that Routh “traveled from the Greensboro, North Carolina, area, to West Palm Beach, Florida, on August 14, 2024.” Between Aug. 18, 2024 to Sept. 15, 2024, Routh’s cell phone “accessed cell towers located near Trump International and the former President’s residence at Mar-a-Lago,” according to the filing.
The FBI also found that a fingerprint on the SKS rifle recovered from the Trump golf course preliminary match’s Routh’s fingerprint.
FBI agents also reviewed a book believed to be authored by Routh that was titled Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, WWIII and the End of Humanity.
According to the court filing, Routh stated in the book that he “must take part of the blame for the [person] that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless, but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize. You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal. No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection.”
FBI agents found six cell phones in the Nissan Xterra. One of the cell phones contained a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico. Also recovered were 12 pairs of gloves, a passport in Routh’s name, a Hawaii driver license and documents. One was a “handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October 2024 and venues where the former President had appeared or was expected to be present,” according to the court filing.
Also found was a notebook “with dozens of pages filled with names and phone numbers pertaining to Ukraine, discussions about how to join combat on behalf of Ukraine, and notes criticizing the governments of China and Russia,” the filing stated.
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