The federal criminal complaint against Ryan Wesley Routh, who plotted to assassinate former President Trump on Sunday, provides more details about Routh's failed assassination plot.
Notably, Routh arrived at the golf course two hours after midnight on Saturday and waited for an opportunity to kill Trump, according to the criminal complaint.
The complaint also details weapons and other equipment that Routh will use to attack Trump.
Routh made his first court appearance today and police released body camera footage of the attempted assassin's arrest.
Accurate time
According to a complaint filed by an FBI agent, a Secret Service agent was walking around the perimeter of Trump International Golf Club, where Trump was playing golf with a donor, at about 1:31 p.m. when the agent saw “what appeared to be a rifle protruding from the edge of a tree,” the complaint said.
Agents fired their weapons, and The New American reported early today, “Witnesses saw a man, later identified as Routh, flee the wooded area and get into a Nissan sports utility vehicle. Witnesses then saw the Nissan leave the area at a high rate of speed.”
According to the criminal complaint, agents “found a digital camera, two bags, including a backpack, a loaded SKS-style 7.62×39 caliber rifle with a scope, and black plastic bags containing food.”
FBI agents wrote that the serial number on the rifle “had been obliterated” and concluded that the rifle “had previously been transported in commerce, either interstate or foreign.”
The complaint also includes photos of the rifle and other items.
Routh was traveling north on Interstate 95 when he was stopped by the Martin County Sheriff's Office. When questioned, Routh told deputies he knew why he was being stopped. The truck's license plate “represented a 2012 white Ford truck that had been reported stolen,” according to the complaint.
And also, a witness who saw Routh flee the scene identified him as the same man seen driving off in a Nissan SUV.
On Facebook, Routh told his followers to contact him through WhatsApp at a phone number provided by T-Mobile, the lawsuit alleges.
According to Routh's phone records, “Routh's cell phone was located near the treed area described above from approximately 1:59 a.m. to approximately 1:31 p.m. the following day.”
The complaint also details Routh's criminal history, including a standoff with police on Dec. 20, 2022, in Greensboro, North Carolina.
In that case, Routh was convicted of possessing a “weapon of mass destruction,” a Class F felony.
“Law enforcement records indicate that on or about March 3, 2010, Routh was convicted of multiple counts of possession of stolen property, a Class H felony,” the complaint states.
The complaint concluded that authorities had probable cause to charge Routh with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and receiving and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Both crimes are felonies. Federal courts have ruled differently on the question of whether laws making it a crime to simply possess a firearm without a serial number are constitutional.
The indictment accuses Routh of attempting to assassinate the former president.
Body camera footage
During his first court appearance today, Routh smiled and laughed while speaking with his lawyers, according to Fox News.
“Routh, 58, remained completely focused throughout Monday's roughly 10-minute hearing, answering all of the judge's questions,” the network reported.
Additional federal charges may be filed in the future, and Routh is scheduled to be arraigned within the next two weeks.
If convicted, Routh, 58, could die in prison. He faces up to 15 years in prison on the first charge, up to five years on the second charge, and a $500,000 fine ($250,000 on each count).
Rouse told the judge he has too little money to pay legal fees. Fox News reports he makes about $36,000 a year and has no savings or real estate.
He continues to support his 25-year-old son.
Video of Routh's arrest shows sheriff's deputies arresting Routh.
“Driver,” someone calls out, “two steps to the right, please. Two steps to the right, please.”
“Driver,” the deputy continued, “go straight back. Keep walking.”
Heavily armed police officers, including one with a police dog ready to go, then handcuffed the would-be assassin, who appeared to be wearing a pink shirt, and escorted him to a car.
Questions left unanswered
One outstanding question is how Routh was able to get so close to Trump just two months after the previous assassination attempt.
He was about 400 yards away from Trump on the golf course.
West Palm Beach Sheriff Rick Bradshaw told reporters that because Trump is not the president, there is no need for additional security at the golf course.
“In his current position, he is not a sitting president,” Bradshaw said. “If he were a sitting president, this entire golf course would be surrounded. But because he is not a sitting president, security is limited to areas that the Secret Service deems feasible.”
But Trump was nearly assassinated on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, when the Secret Service left the perimeter to local police. Suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks was within 200 yards of Trump, far enough away to aim at the former president.
The aftermath of this disastrous performance has tarnished the reputation of the once storied agency and forced Director Kim Cheatle to resign after her dismal performance before a U.S. House of Representatives committee, prior to her embarrassing interview with ABC News.
Last week, Acting Attorney General Ron Lowe appeared before a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees.
“The American people will be shocked, astounded and horrified by what we will report about the Secret Service's failures in the assassination attempt on a former president,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, told Fox News after the hearing. “But they should also be horrified and appalled that the Department of Homeland Security has not been more open and honest with the American people about the intelligence it provides.”
Agency officials may be called before House and Senate committees again soon, likely to explain how another would-be assassin got so close to the former president.
H/T: Mediaite
