Federal prosecutors on Tuesday filed a charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate against Ryan Wesley Routh, the gunman accused of trying to assassinate former president Donald Trump at his Florida golf club last week.
Routh, 58, was charged last week with two federal gun crimes: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The initial counts came one day after the suspect fled from an armed Secret Service agent and was apprehended by local authorities shortly thereafter.
The new charge was first reported by CNN, citing court documents. The Department of Justice released the indictment from a federal grand jury in Miami on Tuesday afternoon.
Routh is also charged with possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and assaulting a federal officer in addition to the two previous federal gun counts.
The FBI continues to investigate the latest assassination attempt, the second against Trump in as many months. Meanwhile, Florida is leading its own criminal investigation into the matter as ordered by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Court documents show that Judge Aileen Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida will be overseeing Routh’s case. The Trump appointee notably dismissed the classified-documents case against the former president in July, two days after the first failed assassination attempt in Butler, Pa.
Before a federal magistrate on Monday, prosecutors said they wanted to charge Routh with attempted assassination. To bolster their argument, they cited a handwritten note that Routh had arranged to be published in the event of his failure to kill Trump. In it, the man described his foiled plan as an assassination attempt.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” Routh wrote to an unnamed person months before the act. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.” The note was addressed “to the world.”
Routh’s note was contained in a box that the unnamed person opened after the would-be assassin’s arrest, prosecutors revealed. Routh also put ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, and other items inside the box with the note.
Now facing five counts, Routh is being held without bail. He is due for an arraignment on September 30.
It was also revealed on Tuesday that Routh’s son, Oran, was arrested on child-pornography charges after federal authorities searched his North Carolina home during their investigation into the assassination attempt. Investigators said they discovered “hundreds” of files with child pornography in Oran’s possession.
The son was charged with receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.