The man who prosecutors say stalked Donald Trump in Florida over the course of a month before setting up what they called a “sniper’s nest” on the fence boarding the former president’s West Palm Beach golf course has pleaded not guilty to attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate.
Ryan Wesley Routh faces five charges including the assassination attempt, gun charges and assaulting an officer. He pleaded not guilty to each charge in federal court.
Routh appeared in tan prison scrubs and wore glasses at times during the brief hearing. He told the judge he understood the charges against him.
Armed with a Soviet-designed rifle between two bags packed with bulletproof plates, prosecutors say Routh had a clear shot of the 6th hole green when Trump was golfing that Sunday afternoon.
The former president was minutes away from Routh’s line of sight, prosecutors alleged during a detention hearing last week.
Routh was allegedly spotted by a Secret Service agent who was running surveillance ahead of Trump. When the agent saw the barrel of a rifle move, the officer opened fire then ducked behind a tree to reload. Routh allegedly fled the area in a car and was arrested by local police less than an hour later on a nearby highway.
Unlike Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot Trump during a campaign rally in July, investigators have found a wealth of information allegedly on Routh and what may have been the motivation behind the alleged attempted assassination.
One piece of information prosecutors have cited is a letter Routh allegedly left with a witness who came forward after Routh was arrested.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” Routh allegedly wrote. “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.”
Trump “ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled,” the letter says.
Routh also wrote a self-published book in which he told Iran, “You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of” the Iran nuclear deal.
When arguing for his detention pending an outcome in the case, which was ultimately granted, prosecutors said Routh has been arrested over 100 times – many of which were because of traffic violations – and that his travels to Ukraine and Taiwan show that he’s able slip across borders.
Routh’s case has been randomly assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, the federal judge who dismissed criminal classified document mishandling charges against Trump earlier this year after his attorneys argued that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully assigned to oversee the investigation and prosecution of Trump.
