The man who authorities say spent 12 hours camped outside Donald Trump’s golf course before the Secret Service spotted him with a rifle pleaded not guilty on Monday to attempting to assassinate the former president as well as other federal charges.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, appeared briefly in the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, days after a grand jury handed down a five-count indictment stemming from the second attempt on Trump’s life since July.
Routh entered the courtroom on Monday morning handcuffed in a tan jumpsuit and waved his hands at reporters gathered to watch the proceedings. His lawyers declined to comment after the hearing.
Routh has been charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
The assassination attempt on 15 September was thwarted after a member of Trump’s Secret Service protective detail spotted Routh’s semi-automatic rifle barrel protruding through the golf course fence line, ahead of where Trump, the Republican nominee in November’s presidential election, was playing golf, authorities said. The agent fired in the direction of Routh, who sped away and was later arrested in a neighboring county.
Officials have said that Routh did not fire any rounds and did not have Trump in his line of sight, and that he left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope attached and an extended magazine, as well as a plastic bag containing food.
On 23 September, prosecutors revealed that Routh had written of his intentions to kill Trump in a handwritten note months before his arrest in Florida. In the note, which appeared to be based on the premise that the assassination attempt would ultimately be unsuccessful, Routh 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, a pro-Ukraine activist, had apparently dropped off at the home of an unidentified witness months before his arrest.
Prosecutors say that FBI agents found other documents that contained a handwritten list of dates and venues in August, September and October where Trump had appeared or was expected to be present. Agents also said they found six cellphones, a passport, his driver’s license and 12 pairs of gloves.
Authorities believe that Routh staked out the grounds of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course for a month before his arrest. Phone records for two of the cellphones found in his car show that on multiple days and times between 18 August and 15 September, his phone accessed cell towers located near the Trump International golf club and the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors say.
At a detention hearing last week, Routh was ordered to remain in federal custody pending trial. If convicted, Routh faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, according to the US justice department.
Although Monday’s hearing was held before a magistrate judge, further proceedings will be overseen by US district judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump and was also assigned to the criminal case accusing the former president of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The assassination attempt on 15 September was the second apparent assassination attempt aimed at Trump since 13 July, when he was injured in a shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a spectator was killed, and two others injured. In that case, a Secret Service sniper fatally shot the would-be assassin.
The Associated Press contributed reporting