Gunman faces life over bid to murder Donald Trump

Ryan Wesley Routh, who prosecutors say hid for hours at Trump golf course, has been charged with attempted assassination.

Ryan Wesley Routh has been a longtime supporter of Ukarine. Picture: AFP

A man arrested after allegedly lurking around Donald Trump’s Florida golf course with a loaded rifle was indicted overnight on Tuesday on a charge of trying to assassinate the former president, which could mean life imprisonment if he is convicted.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, as well as two other new offences, the Justice Department said. The new indictment adds to a pair of firearms charges brought against Mr Routh last week.

The new charges stem from a September 15 encounter in which officials said a Secret Service agent saw Mr Routh pointing a semi-automatic rifle through a golf-course fence while Mr Trump was playing nearby. The agent fired, and Mr Routh fled but was ­arrested shortly later.

Mr Routh didn’t get a shot off, but authorities found the gun loaded with 11 rounds in a magazine and one in the chamber.

Prosecutors said Mr Routh had created his own “sniper’s nest” by hanging two backpacks with bullet-resistant plates on the fence where he was hiding and then ­positioning the rifle between them, suggesting he intended to fire and be shot at in return.

A witness later gave law ­enforcement a note Mr Routh wrote suggesting he had planned the attack and it was a failed ­assassination attempt, prosecutors said. The unidentified witness found the scribbled note inside a box that Mr Routh had dropped off months before the golf course incident. The witness only opened the box, which also contained ammunition, tools and a metal pipe, after Mr Routh’s arrest.

Mr Trump survived an earlier attempt on his life in July, when a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally, grazing the former president’s ear. A sniper quickly shot and killed that attacker.

Mr Routh is scheduled to be ­arraigned next Monday (Tuesday AEDT). The indictment indicated the case has been assigned to US District Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida, who in July dismissed the federal prosecution of Mr Trump for allegedly retaining classified documents and impeding efforts to get them back.

The assassination attempts are the highest profile examples in a series of threats and attacks on politicians and public officials that experts say is on the rise ahead of November’s election.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate violence that strikes at the heart of our democracy,” ­Attorney-General Merrick Garland said. “This must stop.”

The Wall Street Journal