Americans who had contact with Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, were so alarmed by Routh's erratic behavior in Ukraine that they alerted U.S. authorities, who appear to have done little to address the warnings.
Routh, 58, was taken into custody on Sunday. Lurking Former President Donald Trump fired a rifle while playing golf among the trees at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Charged He was charged Monday in federal court with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Routh's resume, including his self-published books, is adorned with a surprising number of so-called “red flags.” Urged He asked the terrorist-supporting Iranian government to assassinate Donald Trump. He has a long criminal record. Own In 2002, a “weapon of mass destruction” was discovered, a gun that had been illegally modified for full automatic fire.
Mr. Rouse was an enthusiastic and vocal supporter of Ukraine, visiting Ukraine shortly after the Russian invasion began in February 2022 and initially offering himself as a foreign recruit for the Ukrainian army, but then recruiting other recruits after Ukraine declined his offer to enlist.
Chelsea Walsh, a nurse said of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) On Monday, she wrote that she had encountered Routh several times in Kiev and concluded that he was “one of the most dangerous Americans I encountered during my month-and-a-half stay in Ukraine.”
Walsh said she was so disturbed by Routh's behavior that she alerted Customs and Border Protection (CBP) about him after she returned to the U.S. She gave CBP a notebook containing a list of more than a dozen foreign nationals who had engaged in disturbing behavior in Ukraine, with Routh at the top of the list for “predatory behavior.”
Walsh said he initially thought of Routh as “eccentric but not dangerous” but that his continued contact with him had changed his assessment, particularly given his ongoing talk about assassinating world leaders.
Another American with experience in Ukraine, former CIA officer Sarah Adams, said Routh had a reputation among aid groups as a “con man” and a “kook”.
Among other disturbing actions, Routh frequently claimed to be acting as an agent of the Ukrainian government in recruiting foreign fighters, when in fact he was not, and one of his major obsessions in Kiev was to get U.S.-trained Afghan soldiers to fight for Ukraine.
When Routh falsely claimed to have convinced the Ukrainian military to accept some Afghan volunteers, aid groups began blacklisting him and reporting him to the State Department. Adams himself also warned Ukrainian humanitarian groups not to associate with him, claiming that the State Department was concerned Routh might be engaging in human trafficking and immigration fraud.
“A lot of people were trying to get him to stop his activities or at least stop people from falling for his scams,” she said.
In late 2023, Walsh reported Routh to the FBI and Interpol after learning that he was again posing as a recruiter for the Ukrainian Foreign Legion and attempting to recruit Syrian refugees. Routh also claimed to be preparing and preparing Iraqis for combat.
“No recruitment from Syria and Iraq! We told you before! These countries are banned, and for good reason,” an official from the International Legion of Ukraine fumed. snap I told Routh in a November 2022 message.
Routh's response was, “What about Afghanistan???” As Ukrainian officials continued to reject his offers of help, his interactions with them became increasingly cranky and cynical.
Many Afghan soldiers really did Many Afghans wanted to join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, some with impressive military records, but the Ukrainians were very reluctant to accept them, partly due to concerns about spies and saboteurs. Language and cultural barriers were also an issue. A few Afghans did join the Foreign Legion, but they were not well received by Ukrainian commanders.
Semafor article from March 2023: About volunteers in Afghanistan Citation Ryan Rouse is the man who told Semaphore he is an “expert” on the issue. He told Semaphore he is a representative of the International Volunteer Center (IVC) in Ukraine. The IVC later said The IVC said that Rouse was not a member, leader or founder of the group, and that it had “never worked with or been in contact with him in any way.”
Left wing The New York Times (New York Times) Published In a June 2023 article about foreign volunteers in Ukraine, Routh again appeared as a self-proclaimed recruiter of international fighters. The New York Times He worked tirelessly to get Afghan soldiers to join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion.
The author is The New York Times Article by Thomas Gibbons Neff Reflected Gibbons-Neff spoke Tuesday about meeting Routh a year ago, saying that at the time, Routh had a grandiose plan to “bribe corrupt officials, forge passports, and do whatever it took to get Afghan leaders to Ukraine” that sounded “ridiculous,” but that he was filled with such strong convictions and had succeeded in getting his name on the lips of so many people in Ukraine and Afghanistan that he was taken seriously.
Evelyn Aschenbrenner, a former American administrative officer for the International Legion of Ukraine, said of The Washington Post On Monday, she wasn't all that surprised to see Routh show up at Donald Trump's golf course with a rifle in hand.
“He has a fiery side. I knew he wasn't shooting full force,” she said.
Like others who clashed with Mr. Routh in Kiev, Ms. Aschenbrenner said Mr. Routh initially pestered her to accept what he called “recruits,” then began passing himself off as an official proxy recruiter for the Ukrainian military.
“This guy is not a real recruiter. He's not legitimate. I don't know what he's up to. Just stay away from him. Block him, ignore him and move on,” she recalled telling the foreign fighters who were legitimately seeking to volunteer for Ukraine.
“The cats and dogs on base did more for him than he did for them,” she said. “He never got a bag of buckwheat or rice. He never donated a pair of socks to the military. As far as I know, he never actually enlisted any recruits in the Legion.”
