The man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course a week ago left behind a note saying he intended to kill the former president, and he kept a handwritten list in his car of dates and locations where Mr. Trump was scheduled to appear, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday.
The new allegations were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing Monday at which the Justice Department is expected to argue that Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, should remain behind bars for further proceedings.
The details are intended to bolster prosecutors’ claims that Routh poses a threat to public safety with his plan to kill Mr. Trump. The plot was foiled by a Secret Service agent who spotted a rifle sticking out of the shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where the former president was playing, authorities said.
The note had been placed in a box left months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after the suspect’s arrest.
The box also contained ammunition, a metal pipe, construction materials, tools, telephones and various letters. The person who received the box and contacted law enforcement was not identified in the Justice Department’s detention memo.
“Dear world”
The note, addressed to “Dear World,” appears to have been written on the assumption that the assassination attempt would fail.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I betrayed you. I did my best and showed all the courage I could muster. Now it’s up to you to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whoever can finish the job,” the note said, according to prosecutors.
It provides “substantial evidence of intent,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Dispoto told the court Monday.
“That’s the message he wanted to send to the world before this incident.”
Routh is charged with unlawful possession of a weapon despite multiple felony convictions, including two counts of possession of stolen property in 2002 in North Carolina and possession of a firearm with the serial number defaced.
Mr. Dispoto said prosecutors would move forward with additional charges before a grand jury for attempting to “assassinate a major political candidate.” If convicted, they would carry a possible life sentence.
In a statement, Mr. Trump accused the Justice Department of “mishandling and downplaying” the apparent assassination attempt by bringing charges that amounted to little more than a “slap on the wrist.”
He also claimed that the Justice Department has a conflict of interest in this case because of its other trials.
Kristy Militello, an assistant federal public defender representing Routh, asked during Monday’s hearing that her client be allowed to live with his sister in Greensboro, North Carolina, while the case proceeds.
She argued that prosecutors had failed to demonstrate that he posed a threat to society and noted that he usually comes to court with decades of legal troubles.
The events
Phone records cited by the Justice Department indicate that Routh traveled to West Palm Beach from Greensboro in mid-August, and was near Mr. Trump’s golf club and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence “on multiple days and on multiple occasions” between Aug. 18 and the day of the apparent assassination attempt.
He was arrested on the afternoon of September 15 after a Secret Service agent surveying the Trump International Golf Club for security threats saw a man’s face partially obscured and the barrel of a semi-automatic rifle pointed directly at him. The agent shot Routh, who fled before being arrested by police officers from a neighboring county.
The Secret Service said Routh did not fire any shots and never had Mr. Trump in his line of sight.
The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched his car found six cellphones, including one that contained a Google search for how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
They also found a list with dates in August, September and October and locations where Mr. Trump had appeared or was scheduled to go, prosecutors said. A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes on how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.
The detention note also cites a book Routh wrote last year in which he lambasted Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In his book, he wrote that Iran is “free to assassinate Trump” for leaving the nuclear deal.