Man charged in Trump incident may have waited near his golf course for nearly 12 hours

A Hawaii man armed with a semi-automatic rifle may have been lying in wait for former President Donald Trump for more than 11 hours at a Florida golf course where Trump was playing Sunday before Trump was hastily evacuated as a Secret Service agent opened fire after spotting the rifle barrel, according to federal officials.

The new detail emerged in a federal criminal complaint filed Monday charging Ryan Routh, 58, with gun crimes in connection with the incident near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Cell phone location data obtained by the FBI indicates that Routh “was located in the vicinity of the area of the tree line” at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach from just before 2:00 a.m. Sunday until about 1:30 p.m., FBI Special Agent Mark Thomas wrote.

That’s roughly when a Secret Service agent allegedly spotted a gun muzzle protruding from a nearby fence and fired at Routh, who jumped in a vehicle and fled north, according to investigators.

A bag containing food was also found at the scene, Thomas said, underscoring the possibility that Routh camped out for a while in the shrubbery surrounding the golf course.

At a press conference Monday afternoon in Palm Beach, an FBI official acknowledged that the agency received a tip in 2019 that Routh — who has multiple felony convictions in North Carolina — was in illegal possession of a firearm.

When law enforcement followed up, the tipster contradicted the earlier claim, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri told reporters. He said the information was passed on to local police in Hawaii.

Veltri said the FBI was scouring various items related to the case, including the rifle recovered at the scene, as well as Routh’s digital footprint and social media accounts.

“The subject had an active online presence,” Veltri said. He did not address a motive for the shooting or detail Routh’s political views.

Veltri did say they FBI had also interviewed seven “civilian witnesses” from the scene and he suggested that one or more of them saw Routh prior to the Sunday incident where the agent opened fire.

Routh invoked his right to remain silent shortly after his arrest, Veltri added.

Routh appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach for a brief hearing earlier Monday, wearing a blue jail jumpsuit. A magistrate judge formally advised him of the criminal charges against him at the moment: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, court records show.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe ordered Routh held without bond until a detention hearing scheduled for Sept. 23. The judge found Routh “indigent” and appointed a federal defender to represent him in the case, court records show.

While the FBI said Sunday that they were investigating the event as an apparent assassination attempt , the initial criminal counts against Routh were limited to the gun charges and did not include a specific charge of attempted assassination or any violent offense.

The complaint issued against Routh said law enforcement recovered an SKS-style, 7.62x39 caliber rifle and scope from the scene at the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Course. The serial number “was unreadable to the naked eye,” Thomas wrote.

The charges in a federal criminal complaint are preliminary. A grand jury indictment is typically required before the case can proceed. Prosecutors often use that to add additional counts.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said Monday that Routh did not appear to have fired the rifle he allegedly pointed through a fence near shrubbery as Trump played a nearby hole.

“Apparently, [Routh] pointed the AK-47 style rifle at a Secret Service agent, who acted promptly and shot at him,” Aronberg said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “The only shots, apparently, that were fired were from the Secret Service.”

Even if Routh did not fire his weapon, he could still face an attempted assassination charge, although authorities may want to investigate further to find more evidence of his intent.

Routh was arrested Sunday on Interstate 95 in Martin County, just north of Palm Beach County, after law enforcement shared a description of his vehicle and the license plate number.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a witness saw Routh “running out of the bushes” near the course and took a photo of Routh’s black Nissan and its license plate as he drove away. The Secret Service later discovered a rifle, a backpack and a GoPro video camera affixed to the fence near where Routh was spotted by an agent checking the course ahead of Trump, officials said.

The new criminal complaint says the license plate on the Nissan SUV Routh drove from the scene was reported stolen from a Ford truck.

Aronberg said at a press conference Sunday afternoon that his office was preparing court paperwork to detain the suspect, but that federal prosecutors had taken over the case.

“We were working on some warrants and a motion for pretrial detention to make sure he stayed behind bars until the feds could get involved,” Aronberg said on MSNBC. “After the press conference, they announced they were asserting jurisdiction. We stood down. That's pretty normal. They're better equipped to handle this….The feds are on top of this.”

Routh has a lengthy criminal record in North Carolina, including a felony conviction for possession of a weapon of mass destruction. That stemmed from a 2002 incident where he barricaded himself in a Greensboro business following a traffic stop. The weapon of mass destruction charge was for an illegal, fully-automatic weapon Routh had, according to a report in the Greensboro News & Record .

Routh was also convicted in North Carolina of multiple felony counts of possession of stolen goods, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday.

Routh also has ties to Hawaii, where he worked in construction and ran a group building housing for the homeless. A white pickup truck parked in front of his home in Hawaii has a Biden-Harris bumper sticker on it and neighbors told local media outlets that Routh had a sign announcing support for Biden on his lawn.

Routh made small donations to Democratic candidates, federal records show, but wrote on Twitter in 2020 that he had voted for Trump in 2016.

“While you were my choice…I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment [sic] and it seems you are getting worse and devolving,” Routh wrote . “I will be glad when you gone.” The account now appears suspended.

In recent years, Routh was deeply involved in efforts to send fighters to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against the Russian invasion .

Veltri said the FBI is examining Routh’s Ukraine-related activities as part of its wide-ranging probe into his background. “We're going through media reports and public statements he made that he wanted to recruit Afghan soldiers and others to fight for Ukraine,” the FBI official said.

Routh traveled to Ukraine in 2022 and later wrote a book distributed on Amazon, “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War.” The rambling, 291-page, self published book is critical of President Joe Biden, but particularly harsh toward Trump.

In a passage addressed to the Iranian government, Routh appeared to suggest that Iran should assassinate Trump for his decision to abandon the deal the Obama administration struck to constrain Iran’s nuclear program.

“I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize,” Routh wrote. “You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal.”