Suspected gunman described ‘assassination attempt’ against Trump in letter

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The man suspected of plotting to kill Donald Trump in Florida wrote a letter describing his “assassination attempt” months before the incident, according to a court filing submitted by federal prosecutors on Monday.

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” Ryan Wesley Routh wrote in the letter shared by Department of Justice prosecutors. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.” 

Prosecutors said that Routh dropped the handwritten letter off at an unnamed witness’s house several months ago.

“It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job,” Routh added in the note, which was addressed to the “world”. “He [the former President] ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unravelled.”

The letter was in a box that also contained ammunition, a metal pipe, four phones and other objects.

The filing comes ahead of a court hearing on Monday in which US prosecutors will seek to keep Routh detained ahead of trial. A lawyer representing Routh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Routh is facing federal gun charges after hiding with a rifle in a Florida golf course where Trump was playing earlier this month, the second time this year that the former president and Republican candidate was the target of an assassination attempt.

The first assassination attempt against Trump took place in July at a Pennsylvania rally, where the ex-president was injured after a gunman opened fire.

During the September 15 incident in Florida, a Secret Service agent opened fire after spotting the barrel of a rifle and partly concealed face of a man in the tree line bordering the Trump International Golf Club at West Palm Beach, where Trump was playing a round of golf, according to the court filing.

The man, who was later identified as Routh, fled the shrubbery and jumped into a vehicle. Police officers later stopped the car on a highway and detained him.

FBI agents found a loaded SKS semi-automatic rifle with a scope and an extended magazine among the trees, according to the court filing. They also found a digital camera as well as a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that contained plates capable of stopping small arms fire. 

While searching Routh’s car, agents found a handwritten list of dates between August and October as well as locations where Trump had or was expected to appear.

Records showed multiple instances of Routh’s phone being in the vicinity of the Trump International golf course and his Mar-a-Lago estate in the month leading up to the alleged attempt, the filing said.

According to the court filing, FBI agents have also reviewed a book apparently written by Routh, in which he said he “must take part of the blame for the [person] that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless, but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologise”. 

“You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me,” he added.