Captured alleged would-be Trump assassin pleads not guilty in foiled Trump golf course plot

Ryan Wesley Routh has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he tried to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15.

During a three-minute arraignment before federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in West Palm Beach, Routh waived reading of the grand jury indictment against him and demanded a trial by jury.

The Ukraine war mercenary who grew up in North Carolina but more recently lived in Hawaii faces up to life in prison if convicted of the charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate. Trump won the GOP nomination for president in July, just days after being shot in the ear by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks in Butler Township, Pennsylvania.

Routh is also charged with possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, possession of a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

According to federal prosecutors, Routh, 58, traveled from his native home in Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach on Aug. 14. On “multiple days and times” between Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, Routh’s cell phone pinged towers near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and the Trump golf club.

A U.S. Secret Service agent driving a golf cart toward the sixth green spotted someone in the brush outside the fence about 1:30 p.m. Sept. 15. After seeing a rifle poking through the chain-link fence, the agent fired four shots toward the alleged gunman, who fled on foot and escaped the area by car. Routh was arrested about 45 minutes later on Interstate 95 in Martin County.

A sniper’s nest was found along the fence line with an AK-47 rifle loaded with 11 rounds, including one in the chamber. The weapon was outfitted with a scope and extended magazine, the FBI said. A backpack and reusable shopping bag each containing carrier plates that can stop small arms fire were found hanging from the fence.

Department of Homeland Security police officers stand watch outside the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 30, 2024, during the arraignment hearing of Ryan Wesley Routh, suspected of the attempted assassination of former U.S. president Donald Trump on Sept. 15. (Photo by Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images)

The Secret Service said Routh never had line of sight to Trump, who was playing the fifth hole at the time.

The FBI released a letter — reportedly written by Routh and addressed to “Dear World” — in which the author apologized for failing to assassinate the 45th president and offered a $150,000 bounty to “whomever can complete the job.” The letter was in a box that Routh dropped off with an unknown witness several months before the attempted assassination, the FBI said.

Routh published a 2023 book in which he lamented that Trump didn’t turn out as he hoped as president. He apologized to Iran, suggesting the Islamic republic is “free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal,” court records show.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a Pakistani national who recently traveled to Iran with hatching a plot to assassinate Trump and other government officials as revenge for the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed terror kingpin Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Quds Force.

Asif Merchant was arrested July 15 in Texas in connection with the alleged plot. He entered the United States through Houston in April after spending two weeks in Iran, according to court documents. He flew to New York and tried to recruit hitmen to kill various U.S. governmental officials, including Trump. The “hitmen” were actually undercover FBI agents.

Merchant was subsequently indicted by a grand jury Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, on one count of attempting to commit an act of terrorism and one count of murder for hire. At his Sept. 16 arraignment, Merchant pleaded not guilty to both counts. He is due back in court Nov. 6.

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