UPDATE (Sept. 24, 2024, 6:41 p.m. ET): On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Ryan Routh on a charge of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
When Ryan Routh was charged last week with two firearm counts, I noted that those might not be the only charges that come in what the FBI said it was investigating as an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump earlier this month. A new court filing shows that more serious charges could indeed be forthcoming.
That filing came ahead of Routh’s detention hearing on Monday in Florida, where federal prosecutors successfully made their case for detaining the suspect ahead of trial. Among other things, the court document listed what authorities say they recovered after the incident at one of Trump’s golf courses in Florida. The items include, among other things:
- A handwritten list of “dates in August, September, and October 2024 and venues where the former President had appeared or was expected to be present.”
- A book “apparently authored by” Routh that referred to assassinating Trump.
- A handwritten letter that said, in part: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you.”
Even without that evidence, prosecutors might be able to prove an assassination attempt if they could prove Routh was lying in wait with a rifle trained on the golf course where Trump was playing. But this additional evidence could make an attempted assassination charge even more likely. His arraignment was previously set for Sept. 30, at which point he can enter a not guilty plea.
This additional evidence could make an attempted assassination charge even more likely. This development comes just as Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody posted on social media a letter she wrote to federal authorities demanding that they make clear whether they’re pursuing Routh for allegedly attempting to assassinate Trump under a federal law that says, “If Federal investigative or prosecutive jurisdiction is asserted for a violation of this section, such assertion shall suspend the exercise of jurisdiction by a State or local authority, under any applicable State or local law, until Federal action is terminated.” I previously wrote about the complications that can arise — to Routh’s possible benefit — if there’s an adversarial posture between federal and state authorities in this matter. But putting the law enforcement politics aside, the alleged evidence outlined in prosecutors’ detention letter Monday could further support such a federal charge like the one Moody inquired about. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for updates and expert analysis on the top legal stories. The newsletter will return to its regular weekly schedule when the Supreme Court’s next term kicks off in October.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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