Trump’s would-be assassin promised prize for anyone who could ‘finish the job’: prosecutors
Washington: The man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on his Florida golf course left a note previously that offered $US150,000 ($219,000) to anyone who could kill the presidential candidate, urging others to “finish the job” if he couldn’t, prosecutors say.
One week after the second apparent assassination attempt on Trump’s life, prosecutors have alleged in a court filing that Ryan Routh left a chilling handwritten letter – addressed to “The World” – in a box at the home of an unnamed associate several months ago.
Ryan Routh in Ukraine in April.Credit: AP
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” it reads.
“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 $US150,000 to whomever can complete the job.
“Everyone across the globe, from the youngest to the oldest, know that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a US president.
“US presidents must at a bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America, and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity.”
A police officer walks past Routh’s home in Kaaawa, Hawaii, while FBI agents conducted a search inside.Credit: AP
Prosecutors revealed a photo of a portion of the letter in a court filing lodged on Monday morning (US time).
According to the filing, Routh had dropped a box containing “ammunition, a metal pipe, miscellaneous building materials, tools, four phones, and various letters” at the home of an unnamed associate months ago.
However, the person didn’t open it until after seeing news reports of the apparent assassination attempt on September 15.
After reading the letter, the person immediately handed it over to authorities.
Routh was charged last week with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Authorities left open the possibility of more serious charges as the investigation continues.
Following the hearing, federal magistrate judge Ryon McCabe denied Routh bail and ordered him to remain in detention, telling the court: “I find that the weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong.”
Last week’s foiled attempt came nine weeks after the Republican candidate was almost killed when a gunman opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania.
But the prosecution’s court filing shows just how close Trump came to another potentially fatal incident as America barrels towards the presidential election on November 8.
Ryan Routh’s chilling note.
According to prosecutors, Routh was in the area of Trump’s golf course and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home for multiple days in the month leading to his arrest last week.
He also had done a Google search in one of his phones of how to travel from Florida to Mexico, and had a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump has appeared or was expected to appear ahead of the election.
But Routh’s alleged assassination attempt was foiled when an agent “spotted the partially obscured face of a man in the brush along the fence line” of the Trump International Golf Club, the filing says.
The man’s position “was directly in line with the sixth hole green”; Trump was at the fifth hole at the time and ushered to safety as soon as the agent ahead fired shots.
FBI agents later found an SKE semi-automatic calibre rifle – loaded with 11 rounds and with a scope attached – along the fence line where Routh had been hiding.
Last week, Trump blamed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for the incident, saying that their rhetoric – which casts him as a danger to democracy – was putting his life in danger and encouraging people who want to kill him.
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country – both from the inside and out,” he told Fox News.
Harris and Biden condemned the attack, and both called Trump in the aftermath.
“I told him what I said publicly: there is no place for political violence in our country,” Harris said.
Biden also discussed the issue with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last Friday during a tour of the US leader’s private home in Wilmington, Delaware, ahead of his final Quad summit.
“We did have a discussion about politics, including here [in the US],” Albanese said after their meeting.
“There’s no place for violence in democratic processes – whether it be the extreme examples of assassination attempts, obviously, but other forms of violence as well.”
However, Trump singled out Harris and Biden again on Monday, saying they were “mishandling and downplaying” the latest assassination attempt against him and again accusing them of weaponising the FBI and the Department of Justice.
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