By Dan McCaleb and Brett Rowland (The Center Square)
Federal authorities on Tuesday charged Ryan Wesley Rouse with attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
The indictment also charges Ruth with four other counts, including knowingly possessing a firearm during a violent crime, assaulting, threatening and interfering with a Secret Service agent.
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The indictment states: “On or about September 15, 2024, in Palm Beach County in the Southern District of Florida, the defendant Ryan Wesley Rouse willfully attempted to kill former United States President and a leading presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump.”
As Trump was playing golf at his golf course in West Palm Beach, a Secret Service agent who was scouting the course ahead of the Republican presidential candidate spotted a rifle sticking out of a tree trunk. The agent fired at the rifle, and a witness told authorities that Ruth fled in a Nissan sport utility vehicle. Local police caught up with Ruth and arrested him a short time later.
According to a criminal complaint filed earlier in the federal case, Rouse’s cellphone records show he was camping outside between 1:59 a.m. and 1:31 p.m.
The nest photo shows two bags hanging from the fence in the sixth hole. The FBI agent said the bags contained a plate that could block rifle fire. Between the two bags was an SKS rifle with a scope. Agents matched the prints on the rifle to prints previously found at Routh, The Center Square. Reported.
Prosecutors said Routh had been planning to kill the former president for months.
Agents found a handwritten list in Ruth’s Nissan Xterra listing dates for August, September and October 2024 and locations where Trump had appeared or was expected to appear.
Routh also left a note.
Routh, who lives in Hawaii and North Carolina and ran in the latter’s March 5 primary, left a note to what federal prosecutors described as a civilian witness months before the Sept. 15 incident. The person contacted law enforcement on Wednesday, according to court records filed Monday. The letter offered money to anyone who could complete the job.
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Part of the letter reads, “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you. I did my best and I mustered up all the courage I could. Now you have to finish the job, and I’m offering $150,000 to the person who can do it.”
Ruth’s lawyers chalked it all up to a public relations ploy.
Previously, Routh was charged with two counts of possession of a firearm: possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
If convicted of attempted assassination, Routh could face life in prison.
The attempted assassination of Trump by Ruth was the second in about two months.
At a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, Trump was shot in the ear by a sniper from a metal roof near the event. One person was killed and two others were wounded at the July rally. Assassination attempt.
Co-published with permission from Center Square.
