Gunman Accused of Attempting to Assassinate Trump Files Court Charges

The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday that the gunman, who is suspected of plotting to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf estate, was indicted on three further counts, one of which included attempting to kill a prominent presidential candidate.

On September 15, Ryan Routh, 58, was taken into custody after being seen by Secret Service officials carrying a gun close to the golf course where Trump was playing.

In connection with the incident, he has already been charged with two gun-related felonies.

The Justice Department released a statement after a grand jury in Miami, Florida, which is a group of people with investigation authority, handed down the latest indictment late on Tuesday.

According to court records, Federal Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee who halted criminal proceedings against the former president for keeping top-secret materials at his home, was randomly given the case.

The new accusations include assault on a federal official, who according to court documents was a Secret Service agent, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent felony in addition to the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate.

As he scouted ahead during Trump’s golf game, a Secret Service agent noticed Routh’s rifle sticking out of the bushes. The suspect was shot by the agent, ran away, and was subsequently found.

On Monday, a federal judge made the decision that Routh ought to stay detained.

According to an FBI review of Routh’s phone, he had been in Florida since August 18. Prosecutors stated that between August 18 and September 15, Routh’s gadgets had been found several times close to Trump’s golf club and Mar-a-Lago home.

Based on the GPS data from his phone, the prosecution claims he was in the area of the club for about 12 hours before the Secret Service agent saw him.

This summer, there have been two attempts to kill President Trump. At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, a gunman opened fire, leaving one person dead and injuring Trump in the ear. This was the first incident.

The gunman was shot dead at the spot and is not believed to have any connection to Routh’s purported scheme; the candidate was unharmed in other ways.

Trump had already charged that the FBI and Department of Justice were “mishandling and downplaying” the event on the golf course.

In a written statement this week, which may have been drafted before it became apparent that more felony counts on top of the prior gun charges were a possibility, Trump said that “the charges brought against the maniac assassin are a slap on the wrist.”

Trump called for the Routh case to be turned over to state authorities in Florida, which is governed by hard-right Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, in a statement replete with fabrications and illogical conspiracy theories on his numerous criminal cases.

Earlier last month, DeSantis declared that the state will conduct an independent investigation and pursue more severe penalties.