A newly released detention filing shows that before being apprehended with apparent plans to assassinate Donald Trump at the former president's West Palm Beach golf course, Ryan Routh maintained a list of all the places Trump was scheduled to be between the months of August and October of this year.
Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors say that Routh conducted several reconnaissance trips to both the West Palm Beach golf course and Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence before ultimately being caught in the act of trying to take out the Republican nominee for president.
Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) and many others want to know how Routh obtained these intimate details about Trump's whereabouts, almost as if there is some kind of mole within the Secret Service who tipped him off about where to find the former president in the months leading up to Election Day.
Then there is the bounty offer letter that Routh wrote offering a $150,000 reward to the person who successfully ends Trump's life before the election.
(Related: How did Ryan Routh have pre-knowledge that Trump would be golfing in West Palm Beach at just the right moment?)
Trump asks Florida to take over case against Routh
In the detention filing, it is further explained that on Sept. 18, 2024, three days after Routh was spotted camped out on Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, law enforcement received correspondence from a civilian witness who says Routh dropped off a suspicious box at his residence several months prior to staging his planned attack.
Inside the box was ammunition, a metal pipe, four phones, tools, and a variety of other miscellaneous building materials. Routh also wrote several other letters that were also found in the box, including the one seen below that he addressed with "Dear World."
"This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you," Routh wrote in the letter. "I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job."
I try to never be surprised but @TheJusticeDept putting out a bounty to kill Trump actually put my jaw on the floor. How the hell are we supposed to take them releasing this bounty as anything but an attempt to get President Trump killed? pic.twitter.com/3cpgdwPYt5
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 23, 2024
Many are now wondering why the DOJ made this shocking letter public in the first place. All it does is incentivize the killing of Trump before the election in exchange for cash – cash that Routh will probably not be able to deliver now that he is being probed for his alleged crimes.
In an email update to his supporters and followers, Trump called the federal government's charges against Routh a mere "slap on the wrist." Those charges include possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
"The Kamala Harris / Joe Biden Department of Justice and FBI are mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July," Trump further wrote in his email screed.
"The charges brought against the maniac assassin are a slap on the wrist. It's no wonder, since the DOJ and FBI have been coming after me nonstop with Weaponized Lawfare since I announced my first Historic Campaign for the Presidency."
Trump concluded his message by calling on Florida to take the matter into its own hands now that "OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT AND DISCREDITED, especially as it pertains to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump."
The latest news about Trump's efforts to secure a second presidential term can be found at Trump.news.
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