Federal prosecutors have asked a judge in the case against Ryan Wesley Routh, accused in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, to indefinitely postpone the trial of the would-be assassin.
That's because the complexity of the case allows judges to waive speedy trial provisions in federal law.
The wide-ranging investigation in the effort spanned the United States and reached Hawaii, and more than a dozen search warrants were executed, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
attempt and prosecution
A federal grand jury indicted Routh on September 24 on charges of attempting to assassinate President Trump at the Republican presidential candidate's Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Mr. Routh arrived at the course in the early hours of September 15th and waited for Mr. Trump for about 12 hours. Trump was between the fifth and sixth holes when a Secret Service agent spotted Routh's SKS rifle “protruding from the treeline.”
Investigators opened fire and Routh fled the scene in a Nissan Xterra. Martin County Sheriff's Deputies arrested him on I-95 North.
Routh advocated for Trump's assassination in a book called “Ukraine's Unwinnable War.'' His record of about 100 arrests includes a felony conviction for a three-hour standoff with police in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2002.
A handwritten letter in a box confiscated by federal agents contained a confession to the attempt. “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, and I am so sorry that it failed,” Routh wrote, federal prosecutors allege.
I tried my best and gave it my all. It's up to you to finish the job. And we're offering $150,000 to anyone who can complete the job.
The five charges include one count of attempted assassination of a major political candidate, three counts of using a firearm, and one count of assault.
Too complex for quick trials
Despite what appears to be ironclad evidence needed for a conviction, prosecutors are now insisting the case should be postponed. Federal law requires that a case be “so unusual or complex that the number of defendants, the nature of the charges, or the existence of new questions of fact or law make it unreasonable to expect adequate preparation for pretrial proceedings.” Postponement is permitted in certain cases. Furthermore, the prosecution itself is unable to hold the trial within the stipulated time limit.''
authorities say they have
They interviewed hundreds of witnesses, executed 13 search warrants in Florida, Hawaii, and North Carolina, and seized hundreds of items of evidence, including multiple electronic devices. More than 100 subpoenas are still pending.
The motion claims that prosecutors will need to review “thousands of videos” and that the amount of electronic material amounts to approximately 4,000 terabytes, or 4 million gigabytes.
The FBI is still investigating and “conducting forensic testing on multiple pieces of evidence, including ballistic testing and fingerprint and DNA comparisons,” the motion claims. The government plans to call “several” expert witnesses at the trial. The motion is shown below.
How did Routh know that Trump played golf?
The unanswered question is how did Routh, whose son Oran was arrested on child pornography charges the day before a grand jury indicted his father, know when President Trump would be playing golf? . One reason is that Acting Secretary of the Secret Service Ron Lowe explained why the agency did not secure the area around the golf course.
The incident at the golf club comes two months after the first attempt on Trump's life in Butler, Pennsylvania, when authorities tightened protection for President Trump on orders from President Joe Biden. Lowe explained at a press conference.
Additional protective measures, including anti-sniper teams and counter-surveillance, “were in place” that Sunday afternoon, Lowe continued. However, President Trump's golf play was “an off-the-record move, meaning it was not on the former president's official schedule.”
The agent who fired the shot at Routh was “supporting the front lines of the agency's multi-layered approach to protection,” Lowe said. The agent located the rifle and opened fire.
As such, Lowe's explanation raised more questions than answers. Most notable is how the would-be assassin knew where Trump was and what time the former president would be there.
Activity on Routh's cell phone showed he had landed on the course shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday and had been in ambush for 12 hours.
But no one knew he was there, and his assassination nest was only 400 yards from Trump near the green of the 6th hole.
only two possibilities
There are only two answers to this question.
First answer: Routh was lucky. He said President Trump would be playing golf on the afternoon of September 15, at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, rather than at Trump National Jupiter or Trump National Doral in Miami, which are only about 19 miles away. I simply thought I would play it.
Routh also predicted that Trump would play around 1:30 p.m., rather than an early morning or evening round.
Second answer: Routh knew when and where Trump would play. That seems impossible if, as Lowe said, the outing is an “off-the-record move, meaning it's not on the former president's official schedule.”
H/T: Main Wire, Fox News
