Ryan Routh, 58, is expected to plead not guilty to charges that include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate. He has already been ordered to remain in jail to await a trial, Reuters reported. Prosecutors allege Routh intended to kill Trump as he golfed at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept.
15. Routh, a struggling roofing contractor, condemned the Republican presidential candidate in a self-published book and dropped off a letter left months earlier with an associate referencing an attempted assassination on Trump, prosecutors allege. “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” the suspect wrote, according to a court filing by prosecutors.
Lawyers for Routh suggested at a Sept. 23 court hearing that the letter may have been an attempt at gaining publicity and highlighted what they called Routh’s efforts to promote democracy in Ukraine and Taiwan. Routh hid outside a fence overlooking the sixth hole of the course, where authorities found an AK-47-style rifle, a bag of snacks, a digital camera and bags containing metal plates meant to withstand return fire by the US Secret Service, according to prosecutors.
A Secret Service agent patrolling the course ahead of Trump spotted Routh and opened fire after noticing the rifle sticking through a fence. Routh fled and was later arrested along a Florida highway, prosecutors allege. He was initially charged with gun-related offenses.
An indictment last week added .