What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida

Law enforcement officers arrest Ryan Wesley Routh, a man suspected in an apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump, Sept. 15, 2024. (Martin County Sheriff's Office via AP)

A man charged with attempting to assassinate U.S. President Donald Trump in South Florida last year was back in court this week, asking a federal judge to let him represent himself, as prosecutors tried to block him from introducing irrelevant evidence during trial.

Ryan Routh’s court-appointed federal public defenders on Thursday asked to be taken off the case, saying he had refused repeated attempts to meet with their team.

Separately, prosecutors trying the case asked a judge ahead of the September trial to rule out the introduction of inadmissible evidence, such as Routh’s previous writings, that may unfairly influence jurors. The judge was planning to hear arguments over that matter on Friday.

Here’s what to know about the case.

The judge lets Ryan Routh represent himself

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off Thursday on Ryan Routh’s request to represent himself during his trial but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel.

The judge told Routh that she believed it was a bad idea for Routh to represent himself, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood and would be ready.

On Friday, the judge was hearing a motion from prosecutors to limit unrelated evidence at trial. “As the Court knows, Routh has been very explicit in his desire to turn this trial into a circus where his supposed good character is weighed against the President’s,” the prosecutors wrote.

Routh is a self-styled mercenary leader

The 59-year-old Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told The Associated Press.

In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he had a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.

In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.

Routh is charged with attempted assassination

Authorities said Routh tried to assassinate Trump, who was running for his second term last September as the GOP presidential nominee, while he played golf at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Routh is facing five felony counts in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida. They include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm to carry out a violent crime; assaulting a federal officer; felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Judge presided over Trump’s classified documents case

If the judge’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she presided over another high-profile case involving Trump — the classified documents case.

Last year, Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the U.S. Justice Department. Cannon’s ruling halted a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the president faced before he returned to office last January.

Cannon was a former federal prosecutor who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020.

Trump was not hurt in the incident

He was fine. U.S. Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away. An agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera. He was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighbouring county.

Last September’s assassination attempt took place just nine weeks after Trump survived another attempt on his life in Pennsylvania.

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Mike Schneider, The Associated Press