US charges suspected Trump gunman with attempted assassination
Al Jazeera
Ryan Routh was remanded in custody after being charged in a Florida court over incident on Florida golf course.
Ryan Routh, the man accused of staking out former United States President Donald Trump’s Florida golf course with a rifle, has been indicted on a charge of attempted assassination of a political candidate.
Routh, 58, was already facing two gun-related charges after he was found pointing a rifle through a fence at a West Palm Beach golf course in Florida while the Republican presidential candidate was playing a round.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate violence that strikes at the heart of our democracy, and we will find and hold accountable those who perpetrate it. This must stop,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Routh has been remanded in custody ahead of his trial. The attempted assassination charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Court documents showed that the case had been assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who in July dismissed a criminal case accusing Trump of illegally keeping classified documents after leaving office.
