WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Monday morning during a brief appearance in federal court.
Authorities say Ryan Routh, 58, lurked near Trump’s golf course here armed with a rifle while the former president - also the Republican nominee in this year’s election - was playing on Sept. 15.
A Secret Service agent on Trump’s security detail opened fire after seeing a man in the bushes and then a rifle, according to prosecutors. Routh, arrested a short time later on Interstate 95, is not accused of firing any shots during the incident.
He faces one count of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, which carries a potential sentence of life in prison. He also faces three federal firearms charges and a count of assaulting a federal officer.
During Routh’s arraignment late Monday morning, he stood while Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart read the charges against him and asked if he understood them.
“Yes, Your Honor,” said Routh, who wore a khaki-colored jumpsuit over a black T-shirt and did not say anything else during the proceedings.
Kristy Militello, Routh’s federal public defender, said her client was entering a plea of not guilty.
The golf course incident was the second time in about two months that someone apparently tried to kill Trump. In July, Trump was wounded when a gunman opened fire during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
That episode prompted intense criticism of the Secret Service, the agency charged with protecting Trump, and led to the resignation of its director. Ronald L. Rowe Jr., the agency’s acting director, has praised the Secret Service’s response to the golf course episode, saying the agent who saw the gunman mitigated a threat.
Federal prosecutors have said that Routh was in Florida for at least a month before the Sept. 15 incident and that cellphone data showed he was near Trump’s properties multiple times over that span. After he was arrested, FBI agents found a handwritten list of places and dates where Trump had appeared or was expected to appear in August, September and October.
In a court filing, prosecutors also included what they said was a photo of a letter Routh had left with a friend months earlier that stated: “Dear World. This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you.”
The letter was included in a box Routh deposited with the friend, who opened it after the golf course incident and contacted authorities, the court filing stated. Officials have not elaborated on why Routh allegedly predicted in the letter that his attempt to kill Trump would fail.
During a detention hearing last week, federal prosecutors said Routh was at the golf course solely to kill Trump. His attorneys portrayed the incident as a publicity stunt and not a serious assassination attempt; they unsuccessfully sought to have him released on bond.
At that hearing, Magistrate Judge Ryon M. McCabe ordered that Routh remain jailed pending trial, citing among other things Routh’s “lengthy criminal history,” including weapons charges, and the nature of the allegations against him.
The trial has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who separately was assigned last year to oversee a federal prosecution of Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and obstructing government efforts to get them back.
Cannon, who was nominated to the federal bench by Trump, dismissed the case against the former president this summer, agreeing with an argument made by Trump’s lawyers that Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the prosecution, was unlawfully appointed. Smith is appealing that decision.
Reinhart, the judge who took Routh’s plea Monday, also has a connection to the classified documents case. In August 2002, Reinhart approved the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida home and private club. Agents found unreturned classified documents that eventually led to the indictment that Cannon would toss out.
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Berman reported from Washington.