Prosecutor: Suspected Trump shooter spoke of “assassination attempt” – News

The man accused of hiding with a gun near Donald Trump's golf course in Florida in an apparent attempt to kill the former president had written a letter months earlier describing an “assassination attempt” and putting a bounty on Trump's life, U.S. prosecutors said Monday.

Ryan Routh, 58, was charged with two weapons offenses after allegedly pointing a rifle through the tree line on Sept. 15 while the Republican presidential candidate was golfing at his West Palm Beach golf course, according to a criminal complaint. He has not yet pleaded guilty.

Routh is scheduled to appear at a hearing scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. EDT (3 p.m. GMT) on Monday. Prosecutors will ask a judge to keep him in jail until his trial. In a court document released ahead of the hearing, prosecutors said Routh delivered a handwritten letter to “the world” several months before the incident putting a bounty on Trump.

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I have failed you,” the suspect wrote, according to the filing. “I will offer $150,000 to anyone who can complete the job.”

The letter was found in a box handed over by an unidentified civilian witness, which also contained ammunition, a metal pipe and four telephones, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also said that when Routh was arrested this month, his car contained a handwritten list of dates from August, September and October when Trump had appeared or was expected to appear. They said a search of his cellphone records showed the devices pinged cell towers near the Trump International golf course, where the incident occurred, and the Mar-a-Lago resort, where Trump lives.

Routh was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional charges may follow.

A U.S. Secret Service agent spotted the gun and fired in Routh's direction, causing the suspect to flee, the indictment says. Routh was later arrested on a Florida highway. U.S. officials said Routh did not fire a shot during the encounter on the golf course and did not have a visual line of sight with Trump, who was several hundred yards away.