US prosecutors have filed gun charges against the man suspected of an apparent effort to kill Donald Trump, the second attempted assassination against the Republican presidential candidate in just over two months.
Ryan Wesley Routh, of Hawaii, was charged on Monday with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, as he made his initial court appearance in Florida.
The federal charges came less than 24 hours after Routh was spotted by Secret Service agents who were protecting Trump as he played golf in Florida, thwarting the apparent bid to assassinate the former president.
The incident occurred just over two months after Trump narrowly avoided being assassinated by a gunman at an election rally in Pennsylvania, shocking a country in the final months of an already tumultuous race for the White House.
With the suspect’s motive still unclear, the former president sought on Monday to blame language used by Harris during the campaign for the latest threat of violence. “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying”, he posted on his social media platform.
Harris, who according to the Financial Times’ national poll tracker is leading Trump by 2.1 percentage points, said on Sunday that she was “deeply disturbed by the possible assassination attempt of former President Trump today”.
US President Joe Biden on Monday praised the Secret Service for its “expert handling of the situation”, while stressing that “in America, there is no place for political violence”.
“Yesterday afternoon, this country was reminded of a heightened and dynamic threat environment the United States Secret Service and its protectees face on a daily basis,” Ronald Rowe, acting Secret Service director, told reporters on Monday.
He added that Biden “had made it clear that he wanted the highest levels of protection” for both Trump and Harris following the attempted assassination in Pennsylvania.
A Secret Service agent opened fire on Sunday towards what appeared to be a rifle in the tree line bordering the Trump International Golf Club at West Palm Beach, while the former president was playing golf about 300- 500 yards away, according to Ric Bradshaw, Palm Beach County sheriff.
A man later identified as Routh fled from the shrubbery and jumped into a vehicle, according to a witness. Police officers later stopped the car on a highway and detained him.
Law enforcement agents found two bags, a digital camera and a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope among the trees, according to the criminal complaint filed on Monday.
According to Rowe, Routh did not have “line of sight” on Trump and did not fire shots at Secret Service agents. He added that the ex-president’s visit to the golf course was not part of his official schedule.
Records show that Routh’s mobile phone was detected in the proximity of the golf course’s shrubbery for approximately 12 hours before his discovery by Secret Service agents.
The investigation, which remains in its initial phase, does not suggest Routh was acting with others, the FBI said. The agency is analysing his posts online as well as interviewing his family members, friends and former colleagues.
If found guilty, Routh faces a maximum penalty of 20 years’ jail and fines of up to $500,000.
A lawyer representing Routh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The court has set a detention hearing on September 23 as well as an arraignment or probable-cause hearing on September 30, based on whether US prosecutors are able to obtain an indictment.
The alleged gunman was among the thousands of foreign volunteers who headed to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, but he was rejected in his bid to join the fight against Moscow.
According to the complaint, Routh was convicted in 2002 in the US of possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction and in 2010 was found guilty of several counts of possession of stolen goods.
Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office, on Monday said Routh had been the subject of a “previously closed” 2019 tip to the FBI that alleged the suspect was a felon in possession of a firearm.
US attorney-general Merrick Garland said on Monday the FBI “is continuing to investigate what appears to be an assassination attempt of former President Trump that occurred yesterday in Florida. We are grateful that the former President is safe”.
The incident in Florida comes with just over seven weeks left in a presidential election that has already been marked by incendiary rhetoric and fears of political violence, including the attempt on Trump’s life by a lone gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
Trump has talked of immigrants “poisoning the blood” of the country, while also pledging to pardon people convicted of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The Trump campaign on Monday circulated a list of comments from Democratic politicians that it said “inspired” the second attempt on Trump’s life, including comments from Biden, Harris and others describing the former president as a “threat” to the US republic.
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