By Andrew Goudsward
(Reuters) -A man found lurking with a gun near Donald Trump's Florida golf course last year was found guilty Tuesday of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media.
A jury found that Ryan Routh, 59, intended to kill Trump, then a former U.S. president and Republican presidential candidate, when he pointed a rifle through a fence while Trump was golfing at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. He was also found guilty on the four other charges he faced, including impeding a federal agent and weapons offenses. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Routh fled without firing a shot after a U.S. Secret Service agent patrolling the course ahead of Trump spotted Routh and the rifle and opened fire, according to witness testimony in the case.
“This plot was carefully crafted and deadly serious,” prosecutor John Shipley said at the start of the trial, adding that without the intervention of the Secret Service agent, “Donald Trump would not be alive.”
The 12-day trial in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, unfolded in the aftermath of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which again thrust the growth of political violence in the U.S. to the center of the national conversation. Trump was targeted in two assassination attempts, including one that wounded him in the ear, during his 2024 presidential campaign that returned him to the White House.
"Today’s guilty verdict against would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh illustrates the Department of Justice’s commitment to punishing those who engage in political violence," Bondi said in a statement on X. "This attempted assassination was not only an attack on our President, but an affront to our very nation itself."
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, lauded the verdict, adding, "This was an evil man with an evil intention, and they caught him."
Democrats have also been recent targets of political violence. In April, an arsonist broke into Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's residence and set it on fire while the family was inside. In June, a gunman posing as a police officer in Minnesota murdered state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot state Senator John Hoffman and his wife.
Routh, who had pleaded not guilty to all charges, opted to fire his lawyers and defend himself at trial. His defense was based on what he described as his gentle and non-violent nature, but his meandering opening statement was cut off by a federal judge and he offered little pushback as a parade of law enforcement witnesses detailed the evidence in the case.
Routh, who most recently lived in Hawaii, had an erratic life as a roofing contractor and involved himself in pro-democracy movements in Taiwan and Ukraine, where he traveled twice following Russia’s invasion.
His daughter Sara told Reuters that he stayed initially in Ukraine for 10 months, sleeping in a tent in Kyiv and helping recruit volunteers and source supplies. Routh’s trips to Ukraine were part of a pattern of grand gestures to aid people he considered vulnerable or defenseless, plans that often ran into practical stumbling blocks.
“They were about to fight a war. They had nothing to fight with,” Sara Routh said. “He felt like he could make a difference.”
Prosecutors alleged that Routh arrived in South Florida about a month before the September 15, 2024, incident, staying at a truck stop and tracking Trump’s movements and schedule. Routh allegedly carried six cell phones and used fake names to conceal his identity.
He lay in wait for nearly 10 hours on the day of the incident, concealing himself in thick bushes overlooking the sixth hole green, prosecutors alleged. Investigators at the scene found an SKS-style rifle, two bags containing metal plates like those used in body armor, and a small video camera pointed toward the course.
Trump was on the fifth hole a few hundred yards away when Routh was discovered. Routh was arrested later that afternoon after being stopped by police along a Florida highway.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)
