Man found guilty of attempted assassination in plot to kill Trump at Florida golf club
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A handout photo showing Ryan Routh under arrest in Florida in September 2024.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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- Ryan Routh was found guilty of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump near his Florida golf course in September 2024, armed with a rifle.
- Routh, who defended himself, was stopped by Secret Service before firing. Prosecutors described the plot as "carefully crafted and deadly serious".
- The trial occurred amid rising political violence after activist Charlie Kirk's assassination and examples of violence against Democrats were mentioned.
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FORT PIERCE, Florida - A man found lurking with a gun near Donald Trump’s Florida golf course in 2024 was found guilty on Sept 23 of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, Fox News reported.
A jury found that Ryan Routh, 59, intended to kill Mr Trump, then a former US president and Republican presidential candidate, when he pointed a rifle through a fence
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Routh fled without firing a shot after a US Secret Service agent patrolling the course ahead of Mr Trump spotted Routh and the rifle and opened fire, according to witness testimony in the case.
“This plot was carefully crafted and deadly serious,” prosecutor John Shipley said at the start of the trial, adding that without the intervention of the Secret Service agent, “Donald Trump would not be alive.”
The trial in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, unfolded in the aftermath of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk,
Mr Trump was targeted in two assassination attempts, including one that wounded him in the ear,
Democrats have also been recent targets of political violence. In April, an arsonist broke into Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence
In June, a gunman posing as a police officer
Routh, who had pleaded not guilty to all charges, opted to fire his lawyers and defend himself at trial. His defence was based on what he described as his gentle and non-violent nature, but his meandering opening statement was cut off by a federal judge and he offered little pushback as a parade of law enforcement witnesses detailed the evidence in the case.
Routh, who most recently lived in Hawaii, had an erratic life as a roofing contractor and involved himself in pro-democracy movements in Taiwan and Ukraine, where he travelled twice following Russia’s invasion.
His daughter Sara told Reuters that he stayed initially in Ukraine for 10 months, sleeping in a tent in Kyiv and helping recruit volunteers and source supplies. Routh’s trips to Ukraine were part of a pattern of grand gestures to aid people he considered vulnerable or defenceless, plans that often ran into practical stumbling blocks.
“They were about to fight a war. They had nothing to fight with,” Ms Sara Routh said. “He felt like he could make a difference.”
Prosecutors alleged that Routh arrived in South Florida about a month before the Sept 15, 2024, incident, staying at a truck stop and tracking Mr movements and schedule. Routh allegedly carried six cellphones and used fake names to conceal his identity.
He lay in wait for nearly 10 hours on the day of the incident, concealing himself in thick bushes overlooking the sixth hole green, prosecutors alleged. Investigators at the scene found an SKS-style rifle, two bags containing metal plates like those used in body armour, and a small video camera pointed toward the course.
Mr Trump was on the fifth hole a few hundred yards away when Routh was discovered.
Routh was arrested later that afternoon after being stopped by police along a Florida highway. REUTERS
