Ryan Routh, the convicted attempted Trump assassin, says he wasn’t able to pull the trigger
By Terri Parker
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WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (WPBF) — Ryan Routh, the man found guilty in September of attempting to assassinate President Trump, says he never intended to pull the trigger.
In a series of five letters written from jail and sent to his son and daughter, Routh claims he could have shot Trump, but at the last minute, could not go through with his plan.
“The victim there in plain sight in range, and the trigger was not pulled, then there is your proof of lack of intent,” Routh wrote as part of his notes to tell the jury.
Routh represented himself during his federal trial and was convicted in September of attempted assassination and related firearms charges.
Prosecutors said he spent nearly 12 hours hidden in a sniper’s nest near the 6th hole of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, armed with a loaded semi-automatic rifle and a bullet in the chamber.
They told jurors that if not for an alert Secret Service agent spying Routh’s face through the bushes and firing at him, Routh could have killed Trump.
In his letters, Routh insists the case hinges on what was in his mind.
“The entirety of this case hinges on what was in the defendant’s head, what was his overall intent, his goal, his thought process?” he wrote.
He argued that he had a clear shot of Trump while Trump was still on the 5th hole, but when it came down to it, did not have it in him to go through with it.
The letters include Routh’s complete opening and closing statements from court — arguments the jury never heard in full because Judge Aileen Cannon cut him off after several minutes, calling his remarks irrelevant and rambling.
Routh’s daughter, Sara Routh, said she believes her father never meant to kill the former president. “He never aimed it at the president. That’s what I’m saying. He wasn’t actually going to go through with it,” she told WPBF 25 News Investigative Reporter Terri Parker.
In other passages, Routh wrote about his efforts to help Ukraine, donate to those in need, and his contempt for Trump.
What he did not explain was why he was hidden for hours with a rifle aimed through a fence if he had no intention to shoot.
In a handwritten update to his closing arguments that he mailed to Parker, Routh apologized to his children and to what he called “mankind.”
He wrote, “I must apologize to mankind and my fellowman for being a constant failure. I am sorry. I will beg of Cannon for an assisted suicide state as I cannot bear what our America has become.”
Routh is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18 and faces life in prison. He is currently searching for an attorney to handle his appeal.
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