Would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh stalked ex-president for month, prosecutors say

Ryan Routh stalked Donald Trump for a month in Florida before the alleged would-be assassin was arrested on Sept. 15 after laying in wait with a rifle outside a golf course where the former president was playing, federal prosecutors revealed in a court filing Monday.

The filing also disclosed that Routh months earlier had given another person a box containing a handwritten letter that said, “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you.”

Routh’s cell phone data shows that he traveled from the Greensboro, North Carolina, area, to West Palm Beach, Florida,” on Aug. 14, according to the filing in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach.

“On multiple days and times from August 18, 2024, to September 15, 2024, Routh’s cell phone accessed cell towers located near Trump International [Golf Course] and the former President’s residence at Mar-a-Lago” in Palm Beach, the filing said.

And when he was arrested after fleeing his hiding spot just outside the golf course, Routh had in his possession 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” the filing said.

The filing, known as a proffer, was made by prosecutors in support of their request that a judge order the 58-year-old Routh held without bail when he appears in court Monday.

Routh is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Trump, who is the Republican nominee for president, narrowly survived an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania on July 13. One rally attendee was killed and two other attendees were wounded in that shooting, which ended when a Secret Service sniper killed the gunman.

On Sept. 15, Trump was playing on the fifth hole at Trump International when a Secret Service agent conducting a security sweep “spotted the partially obscured face of a man in the brush along the fence line” near the sixth hole’s green, the court filing said. The man was later identified as Routh.

The agent after seeing the barrel of a rifle aimed directly at him jumped off his golf cart, drew his weapon, and then fired at Routh, according to the filing.

Routh then fled the area.

Trump, who was several hundred yards away at the time, was “immediately removed” from the course by Secret Service agents, the filing said.

Routh was apprehended by police about 45 minutes later after fleeing in a Nissan Xterra.

FBI agents who searched the area outside the golf course where he had first been spotted found an SKS semiautomatic rifle that had a scope attached and an extended magazine, according to the filing, which said there were 11 rounds found in the rifle, including “a round in the chamber.” The rifle’s serial number was obliterated.

“The agents also found a digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag hanging from the chain link fence,” the filing said.

Both the backpack and the shopping bag “contained plates” which later ballistics testing showed “were capable of stopping small arms fire,” the filing said.

Bags hang from a fence over a rifle propped against it, after the Secret Service foiled what the FBI called an apparent assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump while he was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. September 15, 2024.

Pbso | Via Reuters

The Nissan that Routh was driving had a different license plate than the one registered to the vehicle, prosecutors said in the filing.

“During a search of the Nissan Xterra … FBI agents found two additional license plates,” the filing said.

The photograph below shows the obliterated serial number on the rifle said to be used in an apparent attempted assassination on Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in this undated Handout image. 

US District Court Southern District of Florida | Via Reuters

“The agents also found six cellphones. One of the cell phones contained a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico,” the filing said. “The agents also found 12 pairs of gloves; a Hawaii Driver’s License in the Defendant’s name; a passport in the Defendant’s name.”

And the agents found the handwritten list of dates where Trump had appeared or was expected to be present, according to the filing.

Also in the car was “a notebook with dozens of pages filled with names and phone numbers pertaining to Ukraine, discussions about how to join combat on behalf of Ukraine, and notes criticizing the governments of China and Russia,” the filing said.

FBI agents also reviewed a book apparently written by Routh in February 2023, tilted, “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, WWIII and the End of Humanity.”

The perimeter of Trump International is surrounded by a chain link fence, and the southeast corner of the course is screened by trees and brush. The 6th hole on the course is near the southeast corner, as shown on the map.

DOJ

Three days after his arrest, a civilian witness contacted authorities and told them that “Routh had dropped off a box at his residence several months prior,” according to the filing.

“The witness stated the box contained ammunition, a metal pipe, miscellaneous building materials, tools, four phones, and various letters,” the filing said.

“One handwritten letter, addressed to “The World,” stated, among other things, ‘This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.’ ”

Among other things, the letter said, “He [the former President] ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled.”

Routh was legally barred from possessing a firearm because of two prior felony convictions in North Carolina state court, which are detailed in Monday’s court filing.

He was convicted in December 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, described as a binary explosive device.

In March 2010, he was convicted of multiple counts of possession of stolen goods, the filing noted.