By OAN Staff Member Sofia Flores
Tuesday, September 24, 2024 5:50 PM
Ryan Routh, 58, has been formally charged with attempting to assassinate 45 people.Number President Donald Trump.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the enhanced charges at a press conference on Tuesday. The Justice Department has charged Routh with orchestrating the assassination of the former Republican president while he was camped out at Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach.
The indictment added three additional counts: attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and assault on a federal officer.
These charges are in addition to two federal firearms charges he already faces.
“Violence targeted at public servants puts at risk everything our country stands for, and the Department of Justice will do everything in its power to hold Ryan Routh accountable for the attempted assassination of former President Trump as charged in the indictment,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “The Department of Justice will not tolerate violence that strikes at the heart of our democracy, and we will find and hold accountable those who perpetrate it. This must stop.”
At a court hearing on Monday, prosecutors laid out new details about their investigation into the assassination attempt, saying they had “substantial grounds to support additional charges that the court can and should consider.”
Prosecutors also cited a letter that Routh allegedly sent “several months” before the assassination attempt, in which he bizarrely wrote: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump and I failed you.”
Judge Eileen Cannon was randomly selected to preside over the case. She is a Trump appointee and the same judge who dismissed Trump's classified documents case.
The 58-year-old is due to be arraigned on the charges at a court hearing next week.
Routh is accused of arming himself with a gun and camping out near Trump's Florida golf club for 12 hours, waiting for the former president to come into view, but he and his gun were discovered by US Secret Service agents, thwarting the plot to assassinate the former president.
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