Ryan Wesley Routh pleaded not guilty to five federal charges on Monday in connection with his botched attempt to assassinate former president Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month.
Routh, 58, had been charged with the attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The first three counts were filed along with the indictment last week on top of the initial two firearms counts that were filed the day after the assassination attempt.
Routh attended his brief arraignment on Monday. His lawyers, who entered the not-guilty plea on his behalf, requested a trial by jury. No new court date was announced in the would-be assassin’s case. Routh is being held without bail.
On September 15, a Secret Service agent spotted and opened fire on Routh who was hiding in the bushes with an AK-47-style rifle behind a chain-link fence about 400 to 500 yards away from the former president. The suspect fled Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., and was apprehended by local authorities shortly thereafter.
During a court hearing last Monday, federal prosecutors argued that Routh should be formally charged with attempted assassination because he traveled to West Palm Beach “for one reason and one reason only and that was to kill the former President of the United States.”
In one of his handwritten letters that the prosecution revealed in a court filing, Routh 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 letter was contained in a box that the unnamed person opened after the would-be assassin’s arrest, prosecutors said. He also placed ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, four phones and other items inside the box.
No motive for the thwarted attack has been revealed, as the FBI continues investigating the assassination attempt. Florida is conducting its own probe into the apparent assassination attempt. Governor Ron DeSantis has said that the state-led case should take precedence over the federal prosecution of Routh.
“In my judgment,” DeSantis said, “it’s not in the best interest of our state or our nation to have the same federal agencies that are seeking to prosecute Donald Trump leading this investigation, especially when the most serious straight-forward offense constitutes a violation of state law, but not federal law.”