Ryan Routh, the suspect in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, was formally charged on Monday morning.
Routh is currently facing two felony charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, according to unsealed court documents.
Ryan Wesley Routh takes part in a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Routh could face up to $500,000 in fines and 20 years in prison if convicted on the two charges.
Routh could face further state and federal charges as the investigation into the event continues.
The criminal complaint in Routh’s case was unsealed on Sept. 16, and details what’s known of the events of Sept. 15.
According to the complaint, a U.S. Secret Service agent walking the perimeter of Trump International spotted the barrel of an SKS-style rifle poking out along the tree line.
After the agent fired in the direction of the rifle, a witness spotted a male fleeing the area on foot and then in a Nissan SUV bearing the license plate of a stolen Ford truck.
At about 2:14 p.m., officers from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office pulled Routh over as he was traveling northbound on I-95, and the earlier witness identified him as the suspect seen leaving the golf club.
Cellphone records obtained from T-Mobile placed Routh along the perimeter of Trump International for roughly 12 hours, from 1:51 a.m. to 1:31 p.m., when the incident occurred.
The complaint also details Routh’s prior conviction in December 2002 in Greensboro, North Carolina, for “possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction,” referring to an illegally-possessed, fully-automatic weapon. Routh was also convicted of multiple counts of possession of stolen goods in 2010.
At his arraignment yesterday, Routh told Magistrate Judge Ryon M. McCabe that he has a 25-year-old son, earns about $3,000 a month, and has no assets besides a truck in Hawaii worth roughly $1,000. A photo by The Associated Press taken outside Routh’s Hawaii home shows a truck bearing a Biden–Harris bumper sticker.
Routh will be represented by a public defender. He is due back in court for his detention hearing on Sept. 23.
The FBI is leading the ongoing probe with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Secret Service.
Attorney General Merrick Garland told The Associated Press that the Justice Department will “bring every available resource to bear” as the investigation continues.
At an afternoon press conference, the FBI and Secret Service revealed previously undisclosed details about the incident and the ongoing investigation.
Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge for the FBI’s Miami Field Office, confirmed that investigators are treating the event as an apparent attempted assassination.
“We view this as extremely serious and are determined to provide answers as to what went up to the events which took place,” Veltri said.
He said other FBI field offices in Honolulu and Charlotte, North Carolina, have begun interviewing Routh’s family members, friends, and former colleagues for more information.
Speaking about the incident in an interview on X Spaces about cryptocurrency—his first public interview since the attack—Trump said, “It was quite something.”
Everything was beautiful … and all of a sudden we heard shots being fired in the air, and I guess probably four or five, and it sounded like bullets,” Trump said, referencing his golf partner, Steve Witkoff.
“The Secret Service knew immediately it was bullets, and they grabbed me,” Trump said of hearing the shots.
After shots were heard, Trump and Witkoff were taken by Secret Service agents to the more defensible clubhouse.
Trump joked, “I would have loved to have sunk that last putt, but we decided, ‘Let’s get out of here.’”
—Joseph Lord
TIKTOK TRIES TO CHALLENGE FORCED DIVESTMENT LAW
TikTok attempted to convince a three-judge panel on Sept. 16 that Congress flouted the First Amendment when it passed a law this year that would require its parent company, ByteDance, to divest from its U.S. subsidiary (TikTok US) or shut down operations.
The Justice Department (DOJ) has defended the law as a way to protect U.S. national security interests as ByteDance’s algorithm is based in China, whose government is a foreign adversary. DOJ has highlighted how China can force companies to cooperate with its national security objectives.
During oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, DOJ attorney Daniel Tenny told the judges that TikTok lacked a legitimate First Amendment objection to the law. It also suggested that TikTok users lacked standing, based on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Murthy v. Missouri.
The case helped underscore how courts are working to address new constitutional challenges brought on by the advent of social media. Besides Murthy, Moody v. Netchoice also received attention from the judges as the wrestled with the level to which First Amendment protections applied to companies like TikTok, which are owned by foreign entities.
TikTok’s attorney Andrew Pincus said that Congress’ law was “unprecedented” and that its effect “would be staggering.” He was joined by Jeffrey Fisher, an attorney for TikTok creators who argued that creators should be able to work with publishers of their choice—foreign or not.
—Sam Dorman
BOOKMARKS
Businessman Taurino Torres is suing the California Department of Transportation for negligence after two pallet yards caught fire near his waste disposal business. Torres alleges that the state did not always conduct the required inspections of the pallet yards, and seeks damages for ruined property, and clients lost while his business was forced to close.
The European Commission says it’s too late for China to negotiate prices on electronic vehicles, and avoid a proposed 36.3 percent tariff. The tariff is a response to an EU investigation last year that revealed China was subsidizing its EV market, resulting in artificially low prices.
Ann Arbor Police are designating an assault against a University of Michigan student as a hate crime. The 19-year-old said he was approached from behind just after midnight on Sunday by a group of men who asked if he was Jewish, then attacked him when he said “yes.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will beef up Russia’s army by 180,000 soldiers in 2025, bringing the total number to 1.5 million a year earlier than the original 2026 deadline. Unconfirmed reports say that he is releasing prisoners and conscripting them to fight on the front lines in the war with Ukraine.
A Hong Kong man has pleaded guilty to sedition for wearing a protest T-shirt, violating that nation’s new Article 23 “national security” law. Chu Kai-pong, 27, may receive as much as 10 years in prison for wearing the shirt, which read “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.”
—Stacy Robinson
