A judge on Monday unsealed an affidavit detailing an FBI agent’s description of the investigation into Ryan Routh and his alleged attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday, shedding new light on the case and the weapon in his possession.
According to Thomas, the witness saw Routh fleeing the golf course after an encounter with the Secret Service detail protecting Trump. Secret Service officials, including the acting director, said in public statements that an agent spotted the barrel or muzzle of a firearm and fired shots toward the suspect’s weapon before the suspect fled the scene.
After the man was seen leaving the golf course perimeter, a vehicle that Routh had allegedly been driving left at a “high rate of speed,” the affidavit said.
Thomas wrote that the black Nissan SUV that Routh was allegedly driving at the time of his arrest had a license plate from a Ford pickup truck that had been reported stolen, according to the unsealed documents.
Agents investigating the course perimeter found a loaded SKS-style rifle chambered in 7.62mm x 39mm, equipped with a scope, and with a serial number that was “obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye.” During his initial court appearance on Monday, Routh, a felon, was charged with illegal possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Court papers filed in the case and the Thomas affidavit do not disclose how Routh obtained the SKS rifle, which is typically manufactured in China or the former Soviet Union, although other countries have produced them over the years.
The type of SKS rifle that was found wasn’t made in Florida, Thomas wrote. He said the weapon would likely have had to be shipped into the United States and cross state lines to reach Florida. It was confirmed during his first court appearance that Routh currently resides in Hawaii.
From Thomas’s statement, it’s not clear how Routh allegedly transported the SKS into Florida or whether he had allegedly brought it from his residence in Hawaii. Details about the scope that was attached to the rifle were not provided.
The SKS rifle alleged to have been in Routh’s possession did not fire any shots during the incident, which the FBI has said was an assassination attempt on Trump. The only shots fired were by Secret Service agents responding to the weapon.
“The agent who was visually sweeping the area of the sixth green saw the subject armed with what he perceived to be a rifle and immediately discharged his firearm,” Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe said during Monday’s news briefing.
The suspect didn’t have a line of sight to Trump and “did not fire or get off any shots” at the agents, Rowe stated.
Routh’s alleged possession of a firearm as a convicted felon could result in a 15-year prison sentence with certain sentencing enhancements, according to federal law and sentencing guidelines. Possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number carries a five-year prison term under federal statute.
Initially, officials had said that Routh had possession of an “AK-47” or an AK-style rifle. However, the DOJ and the FBI have since confirmed it was an SKS-style rifle.
Jeffrey Veltri, a special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Miami field office, said on Monday afternoon that Routh invoked his right to an attorney. So far, no motive has been given, although posts on social media and a book that Routh had written express critical views of Trump.
Routh, who was convicted of a felony in 2002, was also the subject of a 2019 FBI investigation based on a tip that he was allegedly in possession of a firearm, Veltri confirmed. After probing the alleged complaint, the FBI closed the case and sent it to local law enforcement officials in Hawaii.
