What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida
Ryan Routh's court-appointed federal public defenders on Thursday asked to be taken off the case, saying he had refused repeated attempts to meet with their team.
Separately, prosecutors trying the case asked a judge ahead of the September trial to rule out the introduction of inadmissible evidence, such as Routh's previous writings, that may unfairly influence jurors. The judge was planning to hear arguments over that matter on Friday.
Here's what to know about the case.
The judge lets Ryan Routh represent himself
US District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off Thursday on Ryan Routh's request to represent himself during his trial but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel.
The judge told Routh that she believed it was a bad idea for Routh to represent himself, but he wouldn't be dissuaded. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood and would be ready.
On Friday, the judge was hearing a motion from prosecutors to limit unrelated evidence at trial. 'As the Court knows, Routh has been very explicit in his desire to turn this trial into a circus where his supposed good character is weighed against the President's,' the prosecutors wrote.
Routh is a self-styled mercenary leader
The 59-year-old Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told The Associated Press.
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he had a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a 'weapon of mass destruction,' which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.
In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.
Routh is charged with attempted assassination
Authorities said Routh tried to assassinate Trump, who was running for his second term last September as the GOP presidential nominee, while he played golf at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Routh is facing five felony counts in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida. They include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm to carry out a violent crime; assaulting a federal officer; felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Judge presided over Trump's classified documents case
If the judge's name sounds familiar, it's because she presided over another high-profile case involving Trump — the classified documents case.
Last year, Cannon sided with Trump's lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the US Justice Department. Cannon's ruling halted a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the president faced before he returned to office last January.
Cannon was a former federal prosecutor who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020.
Trump was not hurt in the incident
He was fine. US Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away. An agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera. He was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.
Last September's assassination attempt took place just nine weeks after Trump survived another attempt on his life in Pennsylvania.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Saudi Gazette
a day ago
- Saudi Gazette
Russia's summer offensive is turning into an escalating crisis for Ukraine
POKROVSK, eastern Ukraine — The silent, moonless black is broken only by the whirr above of a Russian drone. Dmytro is yet to receive any patients at his tiny two-bed field hospital near Pokrovsk, and that is not a good outcome any more. Dawn begins to break – the twilight in which evacuation of the wounded from the front lines is safest – but still none arrive, and the enemy drones swirl incessantly above. 'We have a very difficult situation with evacuation,' said Dmytro. 'Many of the injured have to wait days. For Russian drone pilots, it is an honor for them when they kill medics and the injured.' This night, the frontline wounded do not arrive. The saturation of Moscow's drone in the skies above – already palpable at this stabilization point 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the Russians – has likely made it impossible for even armored vehicles to safely extract the injured. Up the road, the fight rages for the key town of Pokrovsk – in the Kremlin's crosshairs for months, but now at risk of encirclement. Across eastern Ukraine, Russia's tiny gains are adding up. It is capitalizing on a series of small advances and throwing significant resources into an emerging summer offensive, one that risks reshaping control over the front lines. Over four days reporting in the villages behind Kostiantynivka and Pokrovsk – two of the most embattled Ukrainian towns in Donetsk region – CNN witnessed the swift change in control of territory. Russian drones were able to penetrate deep into areas Kyiv's forces once relied upon as oases of calm, and troops struggled to find the personnel and resources to halt a persistent enemy advance. The Russian momentum comes as US President Donald Trump radically shortened his deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to make peace from 50 to up to 12 days. Trump expressed said he was 'very disappointed' in Putin and suggested the Kremlin head had already decided not to entertain the ceasefire the US and its European allies have demanded for months. The reduced timeframe was welcomed by Kyiv and may provide a greater sense of urgency in Western capitals over diplomatic or military support for Ukraine. But it seems unlikely to alter Moscow's course, where its superior manpower, tolerance for casualties, and vast military production line is beginning to reap dividends. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week Russian forces were 'not advancing,' but acknowledged the circumstances across the frontline were 'tough.' The sense of an evolving crisis was most acute around the town of Pokrovsk, unsuccessfully assaulted by Moscow for months at great cost in Russian life. One Ukrainian commander serving near the town described 'a very bad scenario,' in which troops in the adjoining town to Pokrovsk, Myrnohrad, risked 'being surrounded.' The officer added Russians had already moved into the nearby village of Rodynske, and were on the edges of Biletske, endangering the supply line for Ukrainian troops inside Pokrovsk – assessments confirmed by a Ukrainian police officer and another Ukrainian soldier to CNN Tuesday. The commander, who like many officials spoke on condition of anonymity discussing a sensitive topic, said they feared a siege was likely, similar to Avdiivka and Vuhledar last year, where 'we held out to the last and lost both cities and people as a result.' Viktor Tregubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia group of forces active in the area, told state television on Tuesday there 'is constant pressure all along the entire eastern front. Right now, it's absolutely everywhere.' He said Russian troops assaulted mostly on foot. 'If someone is killed, others immediately follow.' While Moscow's forces have made only incremental gains over recent months – seizing small settlements to little strategic avail – the pace of their advance has accelerated, according to open-source mapping by DeepState. More perilously for Kyiv, recent progress has been strategically advantageous, making the encirclement of Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, and Kupiansk to the north, a palpable threat in the weeks ahead. The fall of these three towns would create three separate crises for Kyiv. Firstly, they are the urban areas from which Ukraine defends the remainders of the Donetsk region it controls, without which its troops lack hubs for shelter and resupply. Secondly, their loss to Moscow would free up a significant number of Russian forces to push hard onto Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – the largest Donetsk towns still under Ukrainian control. Thirdly, this loss would leave Kyiv's forces exposed, defending the mostly open agricultural land – with few towns in the way – between the Donetsk region and its key city of Dnipro. The pace of Moscow's advance – or at least the growing penetration of their attack drones into civilian areas – was witnessed by CNN in the eastern town of Dobropilia on Tuesday. The town came under sustained attack by Russian drones two weeks ago, hitting multiple civilian targets. Locals, fearfully awaiting police evacuation in the town, looked anxiously up to the sky, and said the threat from drones had quickly grown in the last few days. A police official expressed surprise at the swift unravelling of Ukrainian control, and told CNN the civilian bus service to the city abruptly ended Monday, because of the security situation, leaving locals able to leave in armored police vans, or their own vehicles. On Saturday, local officials advised parents to evacuate their children themselves. But by Tuesday, they were ferrying out children and residents by the dozen. One elderly resident of the village of Biletske, evacuated on Tuesday, said his house had been set on fire by a drone attack on Monday, and then again on Tuesday. Kyiv also faces an acute challenge in the town of Kostiantynivka, where its forces saw swift Russian advances in the past week to the south east and south west. Russian FPV attack drones can easily target vehicles inside the town, and killed the driver of a civilian van on Sunday, despite the explosive on the device not detonating. Vasyl, a commander with the 93rd Mechanized brigade, said he had not been sent new personnel for eight months, and was forced to resupply frontline positions of only two men with drones, airlifting in food, water and ammunition. 'No one wants to fight', he said. 'The old personnel are left, they are tired and want to be replaced, but no one is replacing them.' He blamed Ukrainian officers for giving inaccurate reports of the front line to their superiors. 'A lot of things are not communicated and are hidden,' he said. 'We don't communicate a lot of things to our state. Our state doesn't communicate a lot of things to the people.' Further north, near Kupiansk, about 60 miles east of Ukraine's second city Kharkiv, Russian troops have raced over the town's north, threatening a key supply road for Ukrainian forces to its West, taking the village of Radkivka. A Ukrainian source in the city described the situation as 'very fast moving,' and Russian analysts have said their forces are in the town's outskirts. The accumulative effect of a Ukrainian manpower crisis, the turbulence of Kyiv's relationship with the Trump White House, and uncertain supplies of weaponry, are a perfect storm that has broken in the face of the vigor and persistence of a Russian summer offensive, whose progress is no longer incremental but is reshaping the conflict and bringing Putin closer to some of his goals fast. — CNN
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
Bessent says child savings accounts in trump law are 'a back door for privatizing social security'
The children's savings program included in President Donald Trump's tax break-and-spending cut law is a back door for privatizing Social Security, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday. Bessent's remark, which he made at a forum hosted by Breitbart News, was striking after Trump's repeated promises that he would not cut Social Security. Democrats quickly seized on the comment as a sign the GOP wants to revive a dormant but unpopular push to privatize the long-running retirement program. 'Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just said the quiet part out loud: The administration is scheming to privatize Social Security,' Tim Hogan, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. The White House did not immediately respond to a message about Bessent's remarks. The GOP's 'big beautiful bill,' as the law is called, created a new children's savings program, 'Trump Accounts,' which can be created for babies born in the US and come with a potential 1000 deposit from the Treasury. The accounts can grow over time much the way college savings plans or other accounts do, and the accumulated funds can eventually be tapped in adulthood. But Bessent on Wednesday allowed for another option for the accounts. 'In a way it is a back door for privatizing Social Security,' Bessent said while speaking about the program. Bessent's comments were striking for his casual revival of a polarizing issue. Ever since the George W. Bush administration considered proposals to privatize Social Security more than 20 years ago, Republicans have publicly moved away from talking about the issue that proved politically unpopular and was swiftly abandoned. Democrats at the time used GOP plans to privatize Social Security in the run-up to the 2006 midterm elections and won back control of both House and Senate in Congress. The Democrats warned Wednesday that Republicans are again trying to dismantle the long-running retirement program. 'It wasn't enough to kick millions of people off their health care and take food away from hungry kids. Trump is now coming after American seniors with a back door scam to take away the benefits they earned,' Hogan at the DNC said in the statement.
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Texas republicans propose new us house map with more winnable gop seats
Texas Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a new congressional map that creates five additional GOP-leaning districts, bolstering their chances of maintaining control as they brace for a challenging midterm election. The redrawn map comes during a special legislative session called by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott as President Donald Trump urges Texas Republicans to reshape districts in the party's favor. Republicans hope the new Texas map will strengthen their chances of holding the US House in 2026, and Trump officials have signaled their efforts may expand beyond the state with similar pushes now underway in Missouri. Republicans in Texas currently hold 25 of the state's 38 seats, and the new map ups the total they could win to 30. All of those new 30 seats were won by Trump in November by at least 10 percent, leading to conservative optimism they can hold them even in what's likely to be a tough midterm environment for the party. The new seats come from making two Rio Grande Valley seats that have been narrowly won by Democrats recently slightly more Republican, collapsing two seats held by Democrats Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar in the Austin and San Antonio area into a single liberal district, and turning two Democratic-held seats in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area into GOP-majority ones. Rep. Greg Casar, one of the Democrats who could face a more difficult reelection under the new map, called the proposed changes illegal voter suppression, pointing to the merging of his district with another Democratic-held seat. 'Everyone who cares about our democracy must mobilize against this illegal map,' Casar said in a statement.
