U.S. to seek attempted assassination charge against man accused of staking out Trump at golf course

This photo provided by Hédi Aouidj shows Ryan Routh, a suspect in the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, in Maidan, Ukraine on April 10, 2024. (Hédi Aouidj via AP)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The man accused in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note saying that he intended to kill the former U.S. president and maintained in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday.

Trump complained that the current holding charges against the man were too light, but prosecutors indicated much more serious charges were coming.

The new allegations were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing Monday at which the Justice Department argued that 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up as the case moves forward. U.S. Magistrate Ryon McCabe agreed, saying the "weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong" and ordered him to stay behind bars.

The latest details are meant to buttress prosecutors' assertions that Routh had set out to kill Trump before the plot was thwarted by a Secret Service agent who spotted a rifle poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing.

The note describing Routh's plans was placed in a box that he dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after last Sunday's arrest, prosecutors said.

The box also contained ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, tools, phones and various letters. The person who received the box and contacted law enforcement was not identified in the Justice Department's detention memo and was described only as a “civilian witness.”

One note, addressed "Dear World," appears to have been premised on the idea that the assassination attempt would be unsuccessful.

"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," the note said, according to prosecutors.

The letter offers “substantial evidence of his intent,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Dispoto said in court Monday.

"That's the message he wanted to send to the world in advance of this incident” he said.

In a statement, Trump accused the Justice Department of “mishandling and downplaying” the apparent assassination attempt by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”

Routh is currently charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina, and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. But Dispoto said in court Monday that prosecutors would pursue additional charges before a grand jury accusing him of having tried to “assassinate a major political candidate” — charges that would warrant life in prison in the event of a conviction.

It is common for prosecutors to file more easily provable charges as an immediate placeholder before adding more significant allegations as the case proceeds.

Trump also claimed that the Justice Department has a conflict of interest in prosecuting this case since, under the supervision of a special counsel, it is simultaneously pursuing cases charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election and with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He signaled support for a separate state-level criminal investigation announced last week by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Kristy Militello, an assistant federal public defender representing Routh, asked during Monday's hearing for Routh to be permitted to live with his sister in Greensboro, N.C., as the case moves forward. She argued that prosecutors had failed to show that he was a threat to the community and noted his track record of habitually showing up for court appearances throughout decades of legal troubles,

Besides the note, prosecutors also cited cellphone records indicating that Routh traveled to West Palm Beach from Greensboro in mid-August, and that he was near Trump’s golf club and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence “on multiple days and times” between August 18 and the day of the apparent attempted assassination.

He was arrested on Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man's face, and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at him.

The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county, leaving behind a loaded rifle, digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that was hanging from a chain link fence.

The FBI has previously said Routh had camped outside the golf course for 12 hours before his arrest. The Secret Service has said Routh did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of sight.

The Secret Service has said Routh did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of sight.

The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched his car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.

They also found a list with dates in August, September and October and venues where Trump had appeared or was scheduled to, according to prosecutors. A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.

The detention memo also cites a book authored by Routh last year in which he lambasted Trump's approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In the book, he wrote that Iran was "free to assassinate Trump" for having left the nuclear deal.