Jason Cohen
Florida state attorney Dave Aronberg on Monday said Ryan Wesley Routh’s letter, in which he admits to attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, could result in “more serious” charges against him.
Routh is currently charged with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, according to a Sept. 16 Justice Department press release. However, Aronberg said on “NewsNation Live” that the attempted assassin will likely face more severe charges as a result of “his confession” in the letter published in a Monday court filing.
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“Now it’s more likely that at some point the feds will charge him with something more serious than these current charges, perhaps attempted assassination of a former president, perhaps attempted murder of a major presidential candidate, because the biggest obstacle was proving his intent,” Aronberg said. “And just the fact that he was stopped by Secret Service before he can get a shot off, even though that was a good thing, that actually works against prosecutors trying to establish this guy’s intent. Well, he just made his confession, and that’s going to come back to haunt him because now I do think it makes it more likely that the feds could charge him more serious crimes.”
“So this is going to work against him in various ways. And another way is that it undermines his insanity defense. I think that probably was going to happen, that he was going to use an insanity defense of this ever goes to trial,” he added. “But the words he used shows that he knew what he was doing. This is premeditation. This was thought out. This wasn’t just a guy who just decided to do something crazy, didn’t know the difference between right and wrong. He’s apologizing for not doing it and hoping someone else does it. And then he fled. So it looks like he did know that what he did was wrong and against the law. So this letter really hurts him in many ways.”
Routh’s letter also contains a $150,000 offer to anybody who is able to successfully assassinate Trump, according to the court filing. Prosecutors wrote in the filing that law enforcement was contacted by a witness on Wednesday who asserted Routh had left a box at his residence consisting of various letters, along with “ammunition, a metal pipe, miscellaneous building materials, tools, four phones,” several months ahead of the assassination attempt.
The witness opened the box after learning of Routh’s attempted assassination of Trump on Sept. 15, the filing states.
“Dear World, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you,” Routh’s letter states. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.”
“Everyone across the globe from the youngest to the oldest know that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a U.S. president,” it continues.
Trump was golfing at his course in West Palm Beach when Secret Service agents noticed Routh hiding in shrubbery near a hole ahead of the former president, according to The Associated Press. Routh attempted to flee but was quickly apprehended.
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