Federal prosecutors have charged the man who was spotted with a gun outside of Donald Trump’s golf course with attempted assassination of a presidential candidate. NBC6’s Niko Clemmons reports
The man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course appeared in court on Monday after being indicted on additional charges.
Ryan Wesley Routh was arraigned in federal court in West Palm Beach on an indictment brought last week charging him with attempted assassination and gun offenses.
Routh, through his attorneys, pleaded not guilty to the five charges against him. His attorneys also waived a formal reading of the charges and officially requested a jury trial.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart oversaw the hearing, and the only time Routh spoke was when he told the judge "yes, your honor," in response to whether he understood the charges against him.
TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
The second attempt on Trump's life, on Sept. 15, was thwarted when a member of his Secret Service protective detail spotted Routh's rifle barrel protruding through the golf course fence line, ahead of where Trump was playing, authorities have said. The agent fired in the direction of Routh, who sped away and was arrested in a neighboring county.
Routh did not fire any rounds and did not have Trump in his line of sight, officials have said. He left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food.
Prosecutors have said that he had written of his plans to kill Trump in a handwritten note months before his Sept. 15 arrest in which he referred to his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 for anyone who could “finish the job.” That note was in a box that Routh had apparently dropped off at the home of an unidentified witness months before his arrest.
Routh's arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has acknowledged failings leading up to that shooting but has said that security worked as it should have to thwart a potential attack in Florida.
Routh was initially charged in a criminal complaint only with gun offenses before prosecutors pursued additional charges before a grand jury. Prosecutors will often quickly bring the first easily provable charges they can and then add more serious charges later as the investigation unfolds.
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Other charges he faces include illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina. He's also accused of having a weapon with a serial number that was obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye, in violation of federal law.
