Screenshot via ABC News.
A Florida jury on Tuesday found 59-year-old Ryan Routh guilty of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump on his West Palm Beach golf course in the months leading up to the 2024 election.
Routh was found guilty on all five charges against him. Those include: attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The jury deliberated for three hours before reaching its verdict.
“Even though he didn’t kill Trump, he wanted to,” prosecutor Chris Brown had told jurors, per CNN.
Routh, he said, “obsessively stalked and tracked” the president and planned the attempted shooting “meticulously and obsessively.”
Later, after the verdict, Fox News reported Routh’s daughter Sara stood up in the courtroom and yelled:
“Don’t do anything. I will get you out. What the f*ck, f*ck, he didn’t hurt anybody. This is not fair. This is all rigged — you guys are as*holes.”
Routh was arrested on Sept. 15, 2024 when he was spotted by a Secret Service agent with a sniper rifle. The attempted assassination came just months after the attempt on President Trump’s life in Butler, PA., which led to the death of rally attendee Corey Comperatore.
The secret service agent who found Routh took one shot at him, before Routh ran away and jumped into a black Nissan Xterra. Based on information provided by an eyewitness, Routh was arrested while heading northbound on I-95 by local officers.
Beyond the witness, a large amount of physical and digital evidence tied Routh to the crime. Investigators presented a letter he gave to someone in the months before his assassination attempt where he said “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you.”
Prosecutors also said at trial that Routh had a Google account on one of his “burner phones” that showed he had searched “Trump’s upcoming rallies” and “Palm Beach traffic areas” leading up to the attack. Routh had put together a scheme to run away to Mexico after shooting Trump, prosecutors claimed, based on his phone activity.
Routh, according to a book he published, said he voted for Trump in 2016 but regretted it following the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Riot. His social media activity leading up to the attempted attack last year showed he was increasingly obsessed with the war in Ukraine; Routh also insisted President Joe Biden “must demand that Israel stop their attacks” on Gaza, following Hamas’ vicious attack on Israel a year earlier, in a letter he sent to Politico in late 2024.
The post JUST IN: Ryan Routh Found Guilty of Trying to Assassinate Trump first appeared on Mediaite.
