Man suspected of second assassination attempt on Trump acknowledged plot – prosecutors
The man suspected of making a second attempt on Donald Trumpâs life last week acknowledged that was his intention in a note discovered by police, prosecutors wrote on Monday.
âThis was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,â Ryan Wesley Routh wrote in the note, which was included in a package he gave to an unnamed witness before his arrest.
Key events
Hereâs more on what we learned from prosecutors today about Ryan Wesley Routhâs motivations to make a suspected second attempt on Donald Trumpâs life, from the Guardianâs Edward Helmore:
The man accused in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note saying that he intended to kill the former president and maintained in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where the Republican White House nominee was to appear, the justice department said on Monday.
The new allegations were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing on Monday at which the justice department was expected to argue that 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up while the case is pending.
The details are meant to buttress prosecutorsâ assertions that Routh had set out to kill Trump before the plot was thwarted by a Secret Service agent who spotted a rifle poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where the former president was playing on 15 September.
The note, addressed âDear Worldâ, was placed in a box that was dropped at the home of an unidentified person who contacted law enforcement officials after last Sundayâs arrest. It appears to have been based on the premise that the assassination attempt would ultimately be unsuccessful.
In addition to the geolocation data tying two of his cellphones to the areas around Donald Trumpâs properties, FBI agents also found in Ryan Wesley Routhâs possession a list of dates where the ex-president would be in August, September and October.
Prosecutors added that Routh had âa notebook with dozens of pages filled with names and phone numbers pertaining to Ukraine, discussions about how to join combat on behalf of Ukraine, and notes criticizing the governments of China and Russiaâ.
Suspected second Trump assassin repeatedly visited area around golf course, Mar-a-Lago â prosecutors
Two cellphones found in the car Ryan Wesley Routh was driving when he was arrested were geolocated to areas near Donald Trumpâs Mar-a-Lago resort and his golf course in Florida in the weeks leading up to his apparent assassination attempt, prosecutors wrote.
The phones, part of six that FBI agents found in Routhâs vehicle, made repeated visits to the vicinity of the two Trump properties between 18 August and 15 September, the court document said.
Agents also examined the SKS rifle found in the bushes outside the golf course where Trump was playing, and discovered a fingerprint they matched to Routh.
The rifle was found in the bushes outside the fence line near the sixth hole of the golf course, and prosecutors wrote that Trump was playing on the fifth hole when a Secret Service agent saw the rifleâs gun barrel protruding from the bushes, and opened fire.
In addition to the rifle, prosecutors wrote that FBI agents found a backpack and shopping bag attached to the fence that contained plates âcapable of stopping small arms fireâ.
FBI agents also reviewed a book they believe Routh authored in February 2023 called Ukraineâs Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, WWIII and the End of Humanity, according to the court document.
In the book, Routh stated that 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 apologize. You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal. No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection.
In a court document submitted today, prosecutors said Ryan Wesley Routh dropped off a box at a witnessâs house months prior to making his attempt on Donald Trumpâs life.
After learning of Routhâs arrest, the unnamed witness opened the box and contacted law enforcement. Prosecutors say the box contained âammunition, a metal pipe, miscellaneous building materials, tools, four phones, and various letters.â
One letter was addressed to âThe Worldâ and read, in part:
This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.
He [the former President] ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled.
Man suspected of second assassination attempt on Trump acknowledged plot – prosecutors
The man suspected of making a second attempt on Donald Trumpâs life last week acknowledged that was his intention in a note discovered by police, prosecutors wrote on Monday.
âThis was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,â Ryan Wesley Routh wrote in the note, which was included in a package he gave to an unnamed witness before his arrest.
Trump leads Harris in Sun belt battleground states, poll finds
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Broadly speaking, there are two groups of swing states expected to decide the presidential election: the Great Lakes states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and the Sun belt states of Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina. The closely watched pollsters at the New York Times and Siena College today released new data from three of the latter group, showing Donald Trump preferred by voters over Kamala Harris, albeit to varying degrees. The poll finds the vice-presidentâs standing is weakest against Trump in Arizona, where she now has a five-point polling deficit after the same pollsters showed her with a five-point lead last month. The race in Georgia is tighter but the tightest state is North Carolina, which has not supported a Democratic candidate for president since 2008.
The survey is the latest sign of the the presidential race remaining in toss-up territory two months after Harris took over as the Democratic candidate from Joe Biden. The Times and Siena College poll is just one data point among many others, but if its findings bear out, it would leave the vice-president reliant on the Great Lakes states as well as Nevada, the fourth Sun belt state that was not surveyed, or a single Nebraska congressional district to win the White House.
Hereâs what else is happening today:
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The government appears to have dodged the threat of another shutdown, after congressional leaders reached a spending agreement that expires on 20 December, defying Trumpâs demands that they also approve legislation to require voters to prove their citizenship when registering.
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Biden honors womenâs soccer champions Gotham F.C. at 10.30am ET, then meets with president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates at 12.20pm before heading to New York City for the UN general assembly.
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Israel has launched a volley of airstrikes at Lebanon today, again raising fears of a regional conflict. You can read out live blog all about it here.
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JD Vance is delivering remarks in Charlotte, North Carolina at 5pm.
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Trump will hold a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania at 7pm.
