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The man suspected of an apparent assassination attempt targeting former US president Donald Trump camped outside a Florida golf course with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours before a Secret Service agent confronted him and opened fire, according to court documents.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite a prior felony conviction and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Additional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation continues and Justice Department prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury.
Routh appeared briefly in federal court on Monday (close to midnight on Tuesday AEST) in West Palm Beach, where he answered perfunctory questions about his work status and income. Shackled and wearing a blue jumpsuit, he smiled as he spoke with a public defender and reviewed documents ahead of the initial appearance. The lawyer declined to comment after the hearing ended.
Routh was arrested on Sunday afternoon (early Monday AEST) after authorities spotted a firearm poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing. Prosecutors asked that he remain locked up as a flight risk. A federal magistrate set additional hearings for later this month.
An FBI affidavit accompanying a criminal complaint shows how law enforcement officials, during their investigation, used his cellphone information to place him at the golf course from 1.59am (3.59pm AEST) on Sunday until about 1.31pm.
A digital camera, a loaded rifle with scope and a plastic bag containing food was recovered from the area where Routh had positioned himself, according to the affidavit.
The authorities did not immediately reveal any new details about Routh or allege a particular motive. But he left an online footprint that reveals shifting political views and intense outrage about world events.
“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in an apparently self-published 2023 book titled Ukraine’s Unwinnable War, which described the former president as a “fool” and “buffoon” for both the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots and the “tremendous blunder” of leaving the Iran nuclear deal.
Routh wrote that he once voted for Trump and must take part of the blame for the “child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless”.
He also tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, and he had a website seeking to raise money and recruit volunteers to fight for Kyiv.
Court records obtained by The Associated Press show Routh was convicted of multiple felony offences, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina.
Speaking in a soft voice in court, he said that he was working and making about $US3000 a month but has zero savings.
Routh said that he has no real estate or assets, aside from two trucks worth about $US1000 ($1480), both located in Hawaii. He also said that he has a 25-year-old son, whom he sometimes supports.
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 metres away.
An agent fired and Routh dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, an aiming scope and a GoPro camera, authorities said. Routh was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighbouring county.
It was the second apparent assassination attempt targeting Trump in as many months.
On July 13, a bullet grazed Trump’s ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Eight days later, Democratic President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, giving way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s nominee.
