The Department of Justice is releasing new information in the second apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The DOJ announced on Monday that Ryan Wesley Routh, who was accused of lying in wait outside of a Florida golf course to shoot the former president, wrote a letter explaining he had the intention to kill Trump. The note was left at the home of an unidentified person months ago who contacted the authorities after Routh’s arrest last week, The Associated Press reported.
The letter was addressed to “the World.”
Routh allegedly also called on others to try to assassinate the former president.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job,” Routh wrote, according to Fox News.
Along with the letter, Routh allegedly left a box that had ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, tools and four phones.
The filing came as the DOJ argued that Routh should remain in custody while the case against him proceeds, the AP reported. A detention hearing for Routh was held on Monday where it was determined that he will remain detained, CNN reported.
Routh currently faces two charges currently: possession of a firearm by a prohibited person - convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. But more charges could be filed, CNN reported.
A Secret Service agent saw a man, later identified as Routh, and a rifle sticking out of a fence several holes ahead of where Trump was golfing in West Palm Beach, CNN reported. The agent fired on the man who then ran and jumped into a car, driving away, according to a witness.
Officials said cell phone records indicated Routh may have been waiting at the courses for almost 12 hours. He was eventually arrested on a nearby highway.
A search of the car Routh was driving turned up a list of events Trump would either appear at or had already been at, six cell phones including one that had a Google search of how to get from Palm Beach County to Mexico, and a notebook that had criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and how to join the war between Ukraine and Russia on Ukraine’s behalf, the AP reported.
Other cell phone records showed that Routh had traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach in August and that he had been near Mar-a-Lago “on multiple days and times” between Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, the day of the apparent attempted assassination, the DOJ said.
Routh said online that he had voted for Trump in 2015 but that the former president had become a disappointment. He also wrote in a self-published book, telling Iran that “You are free to assassinate Trump,” CNN reported.
“In the book, ROUTH stated that he ‘must take part of the blame for the [person] that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless, but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran, I apologize. You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal,” the book said, according to DOJ documents and Fox News.
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