Captured alleged would-be Trump assassin pleads not guilty in foiled Trump golf course plot



Ryan Wesley Routh has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he tried to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15.

During a three-minute arraignment before federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in West Palm Beach, Routh waived reading of the grand jury indictment against him and demanded a trial by jury.

The Ukraine war mercenary who grew up in North Carolina but more recently lived in Hawaii faces up to life in prison if convicted of the charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate. Trump won the GOP nomination for president in July, just days after being shot in the ear by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks in Butler Township, Pennsylvania.

Routh is also charged with possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, possession of a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

According to federal prosecutors, Routh, 58, traveled from his native home in Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach on Aug. 14. On “multiple days and times” between Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, Routh’s cell phone pinged towers near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and the Trump golf club.

A U.S. Secret Service agent driving a golf cart toward the sixth green spotted someone in the brush outside the fence about 1:30 p.m. Sept. 15. After seeing a rifle poking through the chain-link fence, the agent fired four shots toward the alleged gunman, who fled on foot and escaped the area by car. Routh was arrested about 45 minutes later on Interstate 95 in Martin County.

A sniper’s nest was found along the fence line with an AK-47 rifle loaded with 11 rounds, including one in the chamber. The weapon was outfitted with a scope and extended magazine, the FBI said. A backpack and reusable shopping bag each containing carrier plates that can stop small arms fire were found hanging from the fence.

Department of Homeland Security police officers stand watch outside the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 30, 2024, during the arraignment hearing of Ryan Wesley Routh, suspected of the attempted assassination of former U.S. president Donald Trump on Sept. 15. (Photo by Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images)

The Secret Service said Routh never had line of sight to Trump, who was playing the fifth hole at the time.

The FBI released a letter — reportedly written by Routh and addressed to “Dear World” — in which the author apologized for failing to assassinate the 45th president and offered a $150,000 bounty to “whomever can complete the job.” The letter was in a box that Routh dropped off with an unknown witness several months before the attempted assassination, the FBI said.

Routh published a 2023 book in which he lamented that Trump didn’t turn out as he hoped as president. He apologized to Iran, suggesting the Islamic republic is “free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal,” court records show.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a Pakistani national who recently traveled to Iran with hatching a plot to assassinate Trump and other government officials as revenge for the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed terror kingpin Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Quds Force.

Asif Merchant was arrested July 15 in Texas in connection with the alleged plot. He entered the United States through Houston in April after spending two weeks in Iran, according to court documents. He flew to New York and tried to recruit hitmen to kill various U.S. governmental officials, including Trump. The “hitmen” were actually undercover FBI agents.

Merchant was subsequently indicted by a grand jury Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, on one count of attempting to commit an act of terrorism and one count of murder for hire. At his Sept. 16 arraignment, Merchant pleaded not guilty to both counts. He is due back in court Nov. 6.

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Suspected would-be assassin offered a bounty on Trump's head, prosecutors reveal



Federal prosecutors revealed in a Monday filing that Ryan Routh, the 58-year-old Democratic donor suspected of trying to assassinate Kamala Harris' opponent on Sept. 15, previously offered an international bounty on President Donald Trump's head and had foreknowledge of Trump's whereabouts.

According to the filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a civilian witness approached law enforcement days after Routh's Sept. 15 arrest, indicating the suspected would-be assassin had dropped off a box at his residence several months prior.

'It is up to you now to finish the job.'

Upon learning of the assassination attempt, the witness, who is unnamed in the filing, apparently opened the box. There, he reportedly found ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, four phones, and a number of letters, including one addressed to "The World."

Routh's appeal to murderers abroad, which largely reads like Harris campaign literature, allegedly states:

Dear World, This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job. Everyone across the globe from the youngest to the oldest know that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a US president. U.S. presidents must at bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity.

While the Department of Justice disclosed the first page of the letter, the remainder was not shared. However, the filing indicated that the letter does at one point state, "He [the former President] ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled."

Donald Trump Jr. asked on X, "WTF!? Why is Kamala's DOJ publicizing Ryan Wesley Routh putting a bounty on my dad's head???"

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) suggested, "The DOJ, which is trying to put Trump in prison, is now offering a bounty on Trump's head by releasing this. Why else would they release this?"

Routh's letter to killers abroad echoes what he wrote in his self-published 2023 book, "Ukraine's Unwinnable War."

In the book, Routh — who made around 20 small donations to Democrats through ActBlue between 2019 and 2020 and who the Department of Homeland Security declined to investigate despite previous complaints — apologized to Iranians for Trump dismantling the nuclear deal and noted, "You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment."

Routh added, "No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection."

Prosecutors indicated that the box Routh dropped off with the witness also contained a handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October and corresponding venues indicating where Trump had appeared or was anticipated to show up.

It's presently unclear whether the dates and locations were all public knowledge. However, acting USSS Director Ronald Rowe told reporters last week that Trump "wasn't supposed to have gone there in the first place," referencing his Sept. 15 visit to the golf course.

There was also a notebook in the box filled with names and phone numbers linked to Ukraine along with "discussions about how to join combat on behalf of Ukraine."

Blaze News previously reported that Routh fancied himself an international recruiter for Ukrainian forces and ran the website "Fight for Ukraine." Although Ukraine's foreign legion reportedly figured him for a charlatan, he was featured in multiple mainstream reports about international recruitment.

In addition to attempting to help Afghan militants qualify to fight against Russia in Ukraine, Routh was apparently a cheerleader for the Ukrainian brigade associated with neo-Nazis since its inception. He appears at the 1:50-minute mark in a 2022 video of a Ukrainian demonstration in support of the Azov Brigade.

The Azov Brigade said in a statement last week that it "has no connection" to Routh.

The court filing noted further that the FBI obtained cell site records for two of the phones found in the vehicle Routh reportedly used to flee the scene of the alleged assassination attempt.

The records indicated that Routh traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach on Aug. 14.

Between Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, Routh's phone allegedly accessed cell towers near Trump's golf course and Mar-a-Lago residence on numerous occasions.

Extra to revealing Routh's apparent willingness to outsource Trump's assassination to foreign killers and his apparent foreknowledge of Trump's whereabouts, prosecutors highlighted ahead of Routh's detention hearing Monday that on Dec. 20, 2002, the Ukraine-war obsessive was convicted in North Carolina for possession of a weapon of mass destruction — a "binary explosive device" — as well as in 2010 for multiple counts of possession of stolen goods.

Blaze News previously reported that when Routh appeared in court on Dec. 18, 2002, his bond amount was increased to $100,000, and he was ordered released Dec. 18 by Superior Court Judge Peter M. McHugh. Days later, Routh entered a plea agreement that led to dismissal of the explosives charge, and his bond was reduced to $10,000.

Rather than serve up to 19 months in prison, Routh was ultimately ordered to serve 60 months of probation and to pay a $225 fine.

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Sheriff whose men repeatedly arrested would-be TRUMP SHOOTER speaks out



Interview with B.J. Barnes, former Guilford County, North Carolina, sheriff whose men dealt with suspected would-be Trump shooter Ryan Routh multiple times over many years. Read about Routh's extensive criminal history here.

**********

Baker: Did you ever have any personal interactions with Ryan Routh?

Barnes: Never personally, but with over 100 charges and arrests, many of my guys did. He was rather notorious among my people.

Baker: How is it that Routh never served any prison time, given that he had so many arrests and several felony charges and convictions?

Barnes: Guilford County and greater Greensboro are historically very liberal. Our courts here would rather plea out everyone to lesser charges than do the work of convicting real criminals.

Baker: But he had so many criminal charges. Shouldn’t there have been a tipping point where the courts felt they should make him serve time?

Barnes: One would think so.

Baker: What about the 2002 standoff with the “weapon of mass destruction”?

Barnes: That was primarily a standoff with the Greensboro Police Department, but my department was there and assisted. As to the weapons charge, that was pled down to a concealed carry violation, and Routh got away with a wrist-slap.

Baker: It would seem that in a liberal area like Greensboro — and especially with such a serious weapons charge — the politics would dictate such a severe weapons violation would require a harsh response, to make an example out of Routh. Why wouldn’t they go that route?

Barnes: Now, that’s a very good question. At the very least, the weapons charge [in 2002] should have been turned over to federal authorities.

Baker: Since you’ve left service with the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department, are there any good guys left … who might have access to records or be willing to talk?

Barnes: None that would talk to you. That’s the real problem. Apart from myself, there were a total of six conservative North Carolina sheriffs, all taken out at the same time in a coordinated political attack. That’s what really concerns me about this coming election cycle. If they did it once, they can do it again.

Baker: Was it Soros' money used against you and the other conservative sheriffs?

Barnes: No doubt about it.

**********

B.J. Barnes has been retired for five years. His latest fiction book is “Fools, Clowns & Traitors.”

DHS refused to look into alleged would-be Trump assassin flagged on his way back from Ukraine: Report



The U.S. Secret Service admitted this week to failing to search the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, just before President Donald Trump hit the links on Sunday.

When pressed on why the Secret Service failed to spot a Democratic donor — known to the FBI — who apparently had camped out at the course for 12 hours with an SKS-style 7.62x39 caliber rifle, acting USSS Director Ronald Rowe blamed the intended target, telling reporters that Trump "wasn't supposed to have gone there in the first place."

While the USSS is facing criticism over its latest bungling of Trump's security, its parent agency also appears to have dropped the ball.

Just the News reported that Trump critic Alejandro Mayorkas' Department of Homeland Security was prompted to investigate suspected would-be assassin Ryan Routh upon his return home from Ukraine last year after U.S. border officials flagged him as suspect, but the agency didn't bother to act.

'Simply get all military gear and money.'

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reportedly interviewed Routh at the Honolulu airport in June 2023. Officials knew of his travels to Poland, specifically to Warsaw near the Ukrainian border, as well as to Istanbul, Turkey. They were also aware of his efforts to recruit mercenaries from Taiwan, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and Moldova to fight in Ukraine against the Russians.

Blaze News previously noted that Routh ran a website called "Fight for Ukraine," which details various ways — including unlawful ways — people could supposedly go to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine.

"Simply get all military gear and money and fly to Krakow[, Poland]. Take an intercity train or bus to Przemyśl. Take a local train or bus to Medyka. Make your way to the border with Ukraine," wrote Routh.

While Routh was keen on having civilians from across the globe put their lives on the line in Ukraine, he never fought himself, reported the New York Times, whose reporter Thomas Gibbons-Neff first heard of Routh through a former Afghan special operations soldier in Iran.

Routh hatched a grand scheme to get militants fleeing the Taliban to go fight for Kiev. His X feed was littered with failed pleas to Western defense officials and organizations to allow such Afghan mercenaries into Ukraine.

Extra to attempting to recruit mercenaries, while in Ukraine, Routh also demonstrated in support of the Azov Brigade, an outfit associated with neo-Nazis since its inception.

The brigade said in a statement this week it "has no connection" to Routh and that rumors to the contrary are "playing along with Russian propaganda."

According the records reviewed by Just the News, Routh gave the border officials interviewing him a card stating that he was the director of a group called the "International Volunteer Center."

USA Today indicated Monday it tried calling a number associated with Routh and was greeted by a voicemail message identifying the number's owner as "Ryan in Hawaii," working with the "National Volunteer Center, sending soldiers to Ukraine, as well as Taiwan."

The International Volunteer Center in Ukraine made clear it hasn't worked with Routh, telling the New York Post, "We have been officially registered as an organization in Ukraine since October 2023. Prior to the recent developments, none of us had any knowledge of Mr. Routh or any other entity named the International Volunteer Center, aside from our own registered organization."

'There's one person you guys need to keep an eye on, because he's a ticking time bomb.'

Ukraine's foreign legion — which Routh frequently contacted — has characterized the suspected would-be assassin as a charlatan and denied his involvement in the unit.

According to CBP's memo pertaining to Routh's interview, "Subject is a USC who had traveled to Kiev, Ukraine for 3 months to help recruit Soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova, and Taiwan, to fight in the Ukrainian war against Russia."

"Subject stated that he does not get paid for his recruiting efforts and all his work for the Ukrainian government is strictly volunteer work Subject provided his recruiting business card (cards have been uploaded into the event) which list his recruiting partners that he speaks with to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Romanian, Pakistan, Syria, and Israel," continues the memo reviewed by Just the News. "Subject stated that he obtains money from his wife to help fund his trips to Ukraine."

The memo further stated that Routh was referred to the DHS' Homeland Security Investigations but that HSI declined to look into the matter.

"HSI was contacted and refused the case," said the memo.

When pressed for comment, the DHS referred Just the News to the FBI, which is overseeing the investigation into the assassination attempt.

The DHS also apparently failed to take action in response to another concerning report submitted by Chelsea Walsh, a nurse from West Palm Beach who encountered Routh in Kiev in 2022.

Walsh was so worried about Routh's volatile nature and threats of violence that she reported him to a CBP officer at Washington's Dulles airport in June 2022 after returning from Ukraine.

Walsh told WPTV-TV, "As a nurse, we are trained to detect when people are a threat to themselves or others, and I was beginning to realize more and more that Ryan was a threat to others."

At the airport, “[the agent] said that he represented Homeland Security and he was only interested in homeland security threats," said Walsh.

"I told him, 'Then there's one person you guys need to keep an eye on, because he's a ticking time bomb. His name is Ryan Routh, and he lives in Hawaii. He's coming back from Ukraine eventually, and someone needs to follow up with him.'"

Walsh said the DHS never followed up with her.

The FBI — whose agent in charge of the Miami field office, Jeffrey Veltri, was reportedly compelled to scrub his social media history because of his anti-Trump rhetoric — also appears to have let Routh slip off its radar.

Blaze News previously reported that the FBI received a complaint in 2019 that Routh had a firearm. Owing to Routh's felonious record, including a 2002 conviction on a possession of a weapon of mass destruction charge, the complaint would ostensibly have been grounds for an interview at the very least.

Veltri said at a press conference Monday, "When following up on the tip, the alleged complainant was interviewed and did not verify, I repeat, did not verify providing the initial information. The FBI passed that information on to local law enforcement in Honolulu."

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