the person associated with was arrested obvious attempt for conspiratore Donald Trump is a former supporter who opposed the former president partly for foreign policy reasons and then he went to Ukrainewhere he unsuccessfully attempted to raise a volunteer force to fight the Russians.
The revelations about Ryan Wesley Routh came out on Monday, a day later A Secret Service agent chased him From his hideout at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Sheriff’s deputies later took him into custody.
Court documents revealed that Routh camped in a wooded area near the course with a loaded SKS rifle for 12 hours before he was spotted, raising new questions about whether the Secret Service did enough to protect the politician. already survived an assassination attempt.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said Trump was on Fifth Avenue and out of sight of Routh when the agent “engaged” the suspect. Rout never fired his gun either.
But Rout, 58, was equipped to kill, the criminal complaint said.
In addition to the digital camera and two duffel bags, investigators found a black polythene bag containing food that Rout may have stored while waiting in the wooded area, and an SKS-style 7.62×39 rifle loaded with a rifle with a “squeezed” serial number. .
Routh was arraigned Monday in Paul G. Rogers Federal Court in West Palm Beach on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
The FBI confirmed on Sunday that it was investigating an “apparent assassination attempt” on Trump, but so far Routh has not been charged with trying to kill him.
Body camera video A report released by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office shows Rout wearing sunglasses and a pink shirt pulled over her head that exposed her midriff. Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told NBC News that he was asked to pull up his shirt to show he was not carrying a concealed weapon. He was arrested without incident.
The next day, Routh appeared disheveled in prison clothes during a brief court appearance. He told the judge he has a 25-year-old son and no money, but owns two trucks worth about $1,000 each in Hawaii, where he currently lives.
Rout, who is represented by a public defender, was given a restitution hearing on Sept. 23 and later sent back to jail.
There was no discussion of a possible motive. In his self-published book, Routh said he voted for Trump in 2016 and regretted it after Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, calling it a “huge mistake.”
“I have to take some of the blame,” he wrote last year in an article titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: Democracy’s Fatal Flaw, Abandoning the World, and the Global Citizen: Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, and the End of Humanity.” He added that Trump “ultimately lost his brain, but I’m man enough to say I made a misjudgment and a terrible mistake, and I apologize to Iran.”
“You are free to assassinate both Trump and me for the mistake in the judgment and cancellation of the deal,” Routh wrote.
Then he added: “Nobody in the US has the balls to run natural selection or even unnatural selection.”
Federal investigators said Routh held off the Trump International Golf Club for about 12 hours, from 1:59 a.m. Sunday to 1:31 p.m. Sunday, and a Secret Service agent walking the perimeter saw what was seen. a rifle sticking out of the tree line.
The agent fired a rifle and ejected a man, later identified as Routh, who was seen driving away in a Nissan SUV, according to the complaint. Officers located the vehicle and less than an hour later, they pulled Rout over on Interstate 95, and a witness who saw him leaving the golf course recognized him.
Trump survived an assassination attempt in July when he was shot in the ear while addressing supporters at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed and investigators have not yet released a motive.
According to public records and court testimony, Routh most recently lived with her son in a small town outside Honolulu. But he lived most of his life in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he ran a roofing business, according to public records. Records show he scored more than 100 runs with the law, but never made it.
In 2002, court records show that Routh was convicted of illegally possessing a machine gun.
For Ryan Routh, court records show a divorce in 2003, along with multiple civil judgments after he sued a roofing company that contractors and individuals helped run.
Routh still has relatives in Greensboro, according to a public records search. His relatives did not want to talk to reporters on Monday.
Former neighbor Kim Mungo says Rout lived next door to her for 18 years and never engaged her in politics or Ukraine. He called it “beautiful” and said the house belonged to his ex-wife.
Mungo said he was overseeing the house while Rout moved permanently to Hawaii.
When asked if he saw any weapons in the residence, Mungo said he saw several rifles and many large animals.
Rout was active on social media. In 2020, he wrote on Twitter (now X) that he supported Trump in 2016, but was deeply disappointed with him. He is also the Democratic presidential candidate for Sen. I-Vt. He used X to indicate his support for Bernie Sanders. And like Trump, he insulted President Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe.”
While living in Hawaii, Routh made several contributions between $1 and $25 to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue in 2019 and 2020, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In his 291-page book, Routh was cast as a political partisan.
“I’m so tired of people asking me if I’m a Democrat or a Republican because I refuse to be put into a category and always have to answer independently,” he said.
Routh called Trump an “idiot” and a “cat,” but he praised him for reaching out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Routh wrote that Biden “should still be man enough to make that phone call and do the right thing.”
Rout was also a vocal supporter of Ukraine and visited it in 2022. That summer, NBC News spoke with Routh, who said in a message that the West’s “limited response” to the Russia-Ukraine war was “extremely disappointing” and called the moment. “The indictment of the whole human race.” There was never an official interview, and Routh’s comments were not included in NBC News’ coverage of the war.
in an interview with Newsweek Romania 2022He said he volunteered to fight for Routh International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine but was rejected due to his age and lack of combat experience.
Instead, Routh claimed, he preferred to help with military recruitment efforts in Kiev. A representative of the International Legion told NBC News on Monday that Routh had never served in the military.
In his book, Routh seemed dissatisfied with the attitude of the Kiev government to foreigners who joined the fight against Russia.
“Unfortunately, Ukraine does not roll out the red carpet for foreign fighters and volunteers, they do not celebrate their sacrifices and help,” he wrote.