A 59-year-old man, Ryan Routh, has been convicted of attempted assassination of President Donald Trump during an incident near his Florida golf course last September.
In a landmark verdict, a jury determined that Routh had intended to kill the former president and Republican presidential candidate when he pointed a rifle through a fence while Trump was golfing at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
United States Attorney General Pam Bondi shared the news on social media, emphasizing the gravity of the situation and the trial’s implications.
Routh was not only found guilty of attempted murder but also faced four additional charges, including the impeding of a federal agent and various weapons offenses. He now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
According to witness testimony, last year, Routh attempted to flee the scene without firing a shot after a U.S. Secret Service agent, who was patrolling the area ahead of Trump, noticed Routh brandishing the rifle and discharged his weapon.
Prosecutor John Shipley kick-started the trial by stating, “This plot was carefully crafted and deadly serious. Without the intervention of the Secret Service agent, Donald Trump would not be alive.”
The 12-day trial unfolded amidst heightened concerns surrounding political violence in the U.S., particularly following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. This trial placed the issue of political violence at the forefront of national discourse, with Trump being targeted in two assassination attempts during his 2024 presidential campaign.
“Illustrating the Department of Justice’s commitment, today’s guilty verdict against would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh underscores the need to combat political violence,” Attorney General Bondi noted in an official statement. Routh’s actions were described as not just an attack on the President but as an affront to the nation itself.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, President Trump praised the verdict, calling Routh an “evil man with an evil intention, and they caught him.”
Following the announcement of the verdict, Routh reportedly attempted to stab himself with a pen multiple times in the courtroom and needed to be restrained by U.S. marshals. His daughter, Sara, voiced her distress, claiming her father had not harmed anyone and promised to help him get out of prison.
Prosecutors revealed that Routh had arrived in South Florida about a month prior to the incident, residing at a truck stop while tracking Trump’s movements. Allegedly masking his identity with fake names, Routh carried six mobile phones.
On the day of the attempted assassination, he meticulously lay in wait for nearly ten hours, concealing himself in dense bushes overlooking the sixth hole green. During investigations, authorities discovered a semiautomatic rifle, two bags containing metal plates akin to body armor, and a small video camera directed towards the golf course.
At the time of the incident, Trump was on the fifth hole, just a few hundred yards away, when Routh was finally discovered and arrested later that afternoon along a Florida highway.
image source from：aljazeera
