Routh pleads not guilty to attempted assassination of Trump

Ryan Routh pleaded not guilty on Monday in a Florida court to federal charges that he tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump. In a three-minute arraignment, Routh requested that discovery begin pending a jury trial, according to court records. The 58-year-old faces five federal charges including attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and possessing a gun for violent crime. He also faces federal charges of possessing a gun as a felon and possessing a gun with a scratched-off serial number. Routh allegedly waited near the sixth hole at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course with a semi-automatic rifle loaded with a total of 11 bullets including a round in the chamber, according to the indictment.

When is Routh’s trial? U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon has not yet scheduled Routh’s trial and the allegedly would-be assassin will remain in custody until then. Investigators have argued that Routh could be a flight risk after finding a passport and ID in Routh’s name in his car. Authorities also found that Routh had researched travel from Florida’s West Palm Beach to Mexico. He conducted the search using one of the six cell phones found in the car, investigators found.

Didn’t he already confess in a note? Prosecutors added the assassination charge to Routh’s indictment after uncovering a handwritten note from the alleged perpetrator written months before his arrest. The note was in a box Routh left at a friend’s house several months before his arrest, according to the indictment. Seemingly predicting his plot would fail, he wrote, “Dear World, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you.” 

Routh’s notebook also included a handwritten list of dates and venues from August through October where Trump would appear or already had appeared. 

Despite the evidence uncovered, Routh entered a not-guilty plea and should be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno’s report on a congressional probe into the Secret Service after two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.