In the midst of the American presidential campaign, the investigation is progressing into the latest major threat against Donald Trump. The man suspected of having wanted to shoot the Republican candidate in Florida was charged Tuesday with attempted assassination, the second that the former tenant of the White House has suffered in two months.
Ryan Routh, 58, was arrested on September 15 while fleeing after Secret Service agents spotted him in a bush with a semi-automatic rifle near the golf course where the former president was playing.
Routh charged with assaulting federal agent
He had previously been charged only with illegal possession of a firearm by a person with a criminal record and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. In addition to the two initial charges, the U.S. Justice Department announced that the charges include attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime, and assault on a federal agent. The final charge refers to the Secret Service agent he is accused of obstructing the former president’s mission to protect him while he was playing golf.
The new indictment was issued late Tuesday by a grand jury — a citizen panel with investigative powers — in Miami, Florida. The case was randomly assigned to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who in July ruled strongly in favor of the former Republican president in one of his criminal cases. On Monday, another federal judge ordered Routh to remain in pretrial detention.
According to the FBI’s analysis of his phone tracking, he had been in Florida since August 18, and his devices were tracked multiple times between then and September 15 near Donald Trump’s golf course and his Mar-a-Lago residence. Before being spotted and put on the run, he had also spent nearly 12 hours near the golf club, the prosecution said last week.
“Real and concrete threats from Iran”
The former president had already narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on July 13 when a gunman opened fire during a rally in Pennsylvania, hitting him in the ear and killing a firefighter in the audience. The attacker, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump’s campaign team was also informed by intelligence services “of real and concrete threats from Iran aimed at assassinating him,” his spokesman Steven Cheung said. Citing American intelligence, he indicated that these “continuous and coordinated attacks” have intensified “over the last few months.”
Source: www.20minutes.fr
