Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged Ryan Routh with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate after he pushed the muzzle of his rifle through the fence line at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, was assigned to oversee the case.
Last Monday Ryan Routh was charged with two federal gun crimes: Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession (max penalty of 15 years in prison and $250,000 fine), and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number (max penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine).
Routh is expected to be arraigned on the new charges on Monday.
ABC News reported:
Federal prosecutors have officially charged Ryan Routh with attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The move was expected and previewed both by prosecutors in a court hearing on Monday and by Attorney General Merrick Garland in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
The charging documents have not yet been officially updated on Routh’s court docket. He is expected to be arraigned on the charges in a court hearing next week.
Routh, 58, had previously been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number for the incident that took place at Trump International Golf Club on Sept. 15.
Ryan Routh possessed a memo that included dates from August to October of venues where Trump had appeared or was expected to be, prosecutors revealed in a detention filing on Monday.
Ryan Routh also traveled near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course and his Mar-a-Lago residence multiple times in the month leading up to his arrest.
Routh set up a sniper’s nest in the shrubbery outside the perimeter of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach.
In the area of the tree line from which Routh fled, agents found a Go-Pro, two backpacks, a loaded SKS-style, 7.62×39 caliber rifle with a scope, and a black plastic bag containing food.
One of the backpacks contained ceramic tiles police believe could have been used as a shield/body armor.
