What you need to know about the Ryan Routh assassination attempt trial
Ryan Routh, accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, will serve as his defense attorney at trial.
- Ryan Routh was convicted of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump in September 2024.
- The incident occurred at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, just months after another attempt on his life.
- Mr. Routh, who represented him in the eventful trial, was found guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on February 4th.
The man convicted of attempting to kill President Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on February 4th.
On September 15, 2024, President Trump was playing golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when Secret Service agents spotted a rifle shooting through the fenced perimeter of the course. Investigators fired shots at the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, and pursued him. The incident comes just months after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear in another deadly attack at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Routh, 59, was convicted in federal court in September of attempted assassination and immediately tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen. Hoping to avoid a life sentence, he asked U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon for “just punishment.”
Here’s what you need to know about the case, and the conclusion of the second dramatic attempt on Trump’s life in as many months.
Who is Ryan Routh?
Ryan Routh, 59, is the man convicted of the attempted assassination of Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign on September 15, 2024, at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
State voting records show Mr. Routh has voted in general and local elections going back many times, including in 2008 and 2012, but not in 2016, when Mr. Trump first ran for office. Records show he is not affiliated with any political party.
The same records show that Routh most recently voted in the March 2024 primary election in Guilford County, North Carolina. He voted for the Democratic Party.
According to social media posts, Mr. Rous was an ardent supporter of Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression.
In the spring of 2022, Rous hinted in a series of X posts that he had traveled to Ukraine to fight on behalf of his beleaguered country. In one of them, he tweeted on the account of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and said: “I am an American who came to fight with you in Ukraine. I am flying to Krakow and will use every means of transportation to get to Kiev to meet you and fight to the death. … We must get all the civilians of the world to come and join the fight. I will be an example. Attack Moscow now.”
Routh was involved in a second assassination attempt on President Trump’s life, but did not fire a shot.
In the early morning hours of July 13, 2024, Trump was speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania when a bullet grazed his ear.
The gunman, later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot and killed by police at the scene. The scammers appeared to be acting alone and not affiliated with any particular political leaning.
What happened in the September 2024 Trump assassination attempt?
On September 15, 2024, the then-presidential candidate was playing golf at the edge of the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when a man stuck the barrel of a rifle into a fence, authorities said. A Secret Service agent on the course found the weapon and fired at the man, but he fled.
At the scene of the apparent assassination attempt, authorities found a rifle, a black backpack and bag containing ceramic tiles, and a GoPro camera.
Martin County Sheriff’s Office officers stopped Routh on September 15, about 66 miles from the golf course.
The trial included self-assertion, attempted self-harm and a motion calling Trump a “baboon”
In addition to the attempted assassination charge, jurors found Routh guilty of assault on a federal officer, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, possession of a firearm as a felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The first charge alone carries a possible life sentence.
The verdict concludes a tumultuous trial, represented by Mr. Routh, who was unable to persuade a jury to acquit him.
On September 23, as jurors were leaving the courtroom, Routh was removed from his handcuffs, grabbed a pen from a desk and pointed it at him. Federal marshals tackled him and dragged him from the courtroom. Meanwhile, his daughter Sarah begs her father not to hurt her.
In one typed motion filed on September 2, Mr. Routh sought to negotiate with prosecutors by calling Mr. Trump as a witness.
“If you want that baboon, Donald J. Trump, to admit my subpoena evidence and make a deal, bring that idiot in. It’s a deal,” Routh wrote. He also suggested that a “beatdown session” between himself and the president would be “more fun and interesting for everyone.”
“Give me shackles and handcuffs and let the fat old man suffer the worst. We must eradicate crime in America. The carpet is red, right? Blood won’t hurt.”
His motion also included a request for potential housing arrangements during the impending trial. Ms. Routh asked if she could live in a “remote, quiet room” with access to documents, phone calls, meetings, e-mail, a typewriter, a female stripper, and “a putting green where you could work on your putting (golf joke).”
“If I play golf with a racist pig, he can win and execute me. I can win and get the job,” Routh wrote.
In a separate motion in October, Routh asked a judge to jail him in a state that allows assisted suicide. His motions veered between expressions of despair and elaborate proposals for a prisoner exchange. Rous offered to trade him for a journalist imprisoned in China, a protester detained in Iran, or a prisoner of war languishing in Russia.
The letter also included an apology for previously comparing President Trump to a baboon, not because the comparison was inappropriate, but because it was unfair to the baboon.
Kinsey Crowley is a Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact KCrowley@usatodayco.com. follow her X (Twitter), blue sky and TikTok.
