FBI: Suspect claims to have attempted to murder Donald Trump

Washington — The FBI announced on Monday that the man was arrested in connection with the obvious attempted murder At a previous Trump appearance earlier this month, a list of dates and locations where the former president had appeared or was expected to appear was found in his vehicle. A cellphone was also found in his vehicle showing searches for the route from West Palm Beach to Mexico.

The FBI stated in the filing that months earlier, Ryan Wesley Routh, who was identified as a suspect in the incident, had left a man a handwritten letter addressed to “Dear World” that read: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I have failed you. I tried my best and mustered all my courage.”

The details were disclosed in a court filing by federal prosecutors asking that Routh be held in custody during the trial. A hearing on the Justice Department's motion is scheduled for Monday morning in federal court. Routh has been in custody since his arrest just over a week ago.

Routh was charged with two violations of the Federal Weapons Act after the apparent assassination attempt on Trump. The Secret Service said Trump was not injured after an agent spotted the face of a man in the bushes, later identified as Routh, and a rifle along the fence outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15.

Federal authorities said Trump was not shot while he was on the golf course, but the agent shot the suspect, who then fled.

CBS News has contacted Routh's attorney for comment.

Prosecutors said in their latest filing that the suspect was on the 6th hole green and Trump was playing on the 5th hole when the Secret Service agent opened fire. Trump was immediately removed from the area after the shooting, the filing said.

The FBI found an AK-47 rifle with a scope and an extended magazine inside the fence. The weapon was loaded with 11 rounds of ammunition, according to court documents, and the serial number on the rifle was obscured and illegible. Secret Service agents also found a digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag hanging on the fence, prosecutors said.

The backpack and shopping bag contained plates that were “capable of stopping small arms fire,” the file says.

Routh was arrested about 50 miles away after a witness at the golf course gave a description of the vehicle and license plate, prosecutors said. When the SUV, a Nissan Xterra, was searched, the FBI found additional license plates, six cellphones, 12 pairs of gloves, a Hawaiian driver's license in Routh's name and documents, the court filing said. The FBI said the SUV's license plate was not registered to that vehicle.

One of the phones contained a Google search that included information on how to travel to Mexico from Palm Beach County, Florida, where Trump's golf course is located, prosecutors said. Among the documents was a handwritten list of dates in August, September and October and locations where Trump had appeared or was expected to appear, according to court records.

Cellphone records obtained by the FBI from two of the phones found in the vehicle showed the suspect traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach on Aug. 14, prosecutors said. The records also showed Routh's cellphone accessed cell towers near Trump International Golf Course and Mar-a-Lago, the former president's South Florida residence, on multiple days and at multiple times between Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, the day of the incident, according to the court filing.

The FBI also found a fingerprint matching Routh's on a piece of tape attached to the rifle recovered from the fence line of Trump's golf course, prosecutors said.

Law enforcement said in the filing that on Sept. 18, three days after the alleged assassination attempt, they received information from a man who said Routh had left a box at his home several months earlier. After learning of the Sept. 15 incident, the man said he opened the box, which contained ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, tools, four phones and several letters, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors noted in their motion that Routh was convicted in December 2002 of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, a felony. In March 2010, he was also found guilty on several counts of possession of stolen goods.

The incident outside Trump's golf course in South Florida has drawn attention to the former president's protection and came just weeks after he was Attack on a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooksopened fire from the roof of a building near Trump's speech. The former president was shot in the ear and two others were wounded. Another rally attendee was killed.

The attack sparked massive criticism of the Secret Service and raised questions about how the Crooks managed to gain access to the rooftop, which was so close to Trump's speech.

An internal investigation into the shooting by the Secret Service found it numerous communication problems with local law enforcement and a “lack of due diligence” on the part of the Secret Service.

Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe said Friday that Trump enjoys “the highest level of protection” and praised agents for their work in thwarting another attack on the former president.

“The former president was not shot. The former president did not know where he was on the golf course,” he said of the incident earlier this month. “The procedures work, the redundancies work, so the high level of protection works.”