58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh allegedly hid for 12 hours waiting to assassinate former President Donald Trump with an AR-15 rifle.
FBI assistant director Chris Swecker said Routh may have received inside information from a 3rd party because Trump’s golf round is not public information. “He’s either surveilling Donald Trump or he received some inside information,” Swecker said. “That’s pretty sinister if that’s the case because that implicates a 3rd party either wittingly or unwittingly.”
The would-be assassin is a long-time registered Democrat, donating exclusively to Democrats 19 times since 2019.
Routh also publicly encouraged Iran to kill Trump in a book about the Ukraine war. “I would like to celebrate the amazing work of John Kerry that humbly and humanly handled the Iran deal which elated me and the world,” Routh wrote in a book titled Unwinnable War. “I must take part of the blame for the retarded child that we elected for the next president that ended up being brainless, but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize,” Routh wrote. “You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and that dismantling of the deal.”
Bodycam footage shows the arrest of Routh. The footage was released by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office and depicts Routh being directed backwards toward law enforcement with his arms raised.
The incident began when the U.S. Secret Service reported shots fired at Trump International Golf Club, where an agent spotted a rifle barrel and intervened.
“Driver, take two steps to your right,” a deputy repeatedly shouts. “Walk straight back.”
Routh, with his shirt and arms raised over his head, then comes into the frame.
A Secret Service agent, who was clearing a hole ahead of where former President Donald Trump was, spotted a “rifle barrel sticking out of the fence and immediately engaged that individual.”
