ATTEMPTED ASSASSIN APPEARS IN FEDERAL COURT- Accused is denied bail without bond by U.S Magistrate.
The U.S. Justice Department plans to charge the attempted assassin of former President Donald Trumpwith attempting to assassinate a major political candidate, a felony carrying a life sentence if Ryan Routh is convicted.
Routh was ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe to remain in jail without bond pending trial on the two gun-related charges brought against him after his Sept. 15 arrest. McCabe said prosecutors had documented Routh’s effort to “stalk” Trump during a roughly month-long period in south Florida “in an apparent attempt to assassinate him.”
Prosecutor Mark Dispoto said the Justice Department will ask a grand jury to bring the more serious attempted assassination charge against Routh, who was handcuffed and shackled at the waist during a hearing before McCabe in which prosecutors detailed some of the evidence collected against him.
Routh wrote a letter, prosecutors said, months earlier referencing an “assassination attempt” on the Republican presidential candidate and a $150,000 bounty on his life.
He also assembled a “sniper’s nest” near the sixth hole of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club in an attempt to kill him, Dispoto said, but was stopped when a U.S. Secret Service agent opened fire after spotting a rifle poking through the fence.
Lawyers representing Routh unsuccessfully sought his release on a $250,000 bond, questioning the prosecution’s evidence and arguing that Routh has attempted to aid democracies including Ukraine and Taiwan.
