DeSantis floats Florida charging apparent, would-be Trump assassin with attempted murder

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday kicked off a state investigation into the apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, and raised the possibility that it might result in charging the suspect with attempted murder.

The Republican governor promised to pursue the “most serious charges that are on the books to hold this guy accountable.” Should those charges materialize — and the suspect is found guilty — it could result in a sentence of life in prison.

Such an outcome would supplement the initial federal charges against the suspect, Ryan Routh, who was arrested shortly after the incident on Sunday and remains in custody. He currently faces charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. It’s possible, however, that Routh will also face additional federal charges as that investigation progresses. The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

DeSantis said he’d spoken with Trump and had his blessing to pursue the state investigation. “He was in good spirits,” DeSantis said. “He was complimentary of the state of Florida taking the lead. He thought that was totally appropriate, and he encouraged us to continue doing what we're doing.”

DeSantis, appearing at a press conference at a police training center near the area where the FBI is actively investigating the incident at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, signed an executive order that tasks a statewide prosecutor, under the oversight of the state attorney general’s office, to run the investigation. It’ll be carried out jointly with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Department of Highway Safety.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody at the press conference waved off questions she’d received previously on whether there would be a turf war between state and federal investigators.

“The American people need to know we're on this,” she said. “Sometimes states have the ability and the jurisdiction to bring charges and go after maximum penalties that maybe the federal government does not … It is very common for state investigators, state prosecutors, to work with our federal prosecutors and federal agents on dual tracks with different purposes.”

But Moody and DeSantis did also question the FBI’s ability to remain neutral on the latest investigation, given that the bureau has investigated Trump in two cases that led to felony charges against the former president. One of those cases accuses Trump of hoarding classified documents at his Florida club and obstructing their return; the other accuses him of conspiring to try to overturn the 2020 election.

“I do think that there's a lot of concern about how these agencies have operated,” DeSantis said. “For us, all we are interested in is the truth. We're not involved in any of those other things that the Justice Department has been involved in. So it's better for the public, and it's better for justice.”

DeSantis promised the state investigation would move “expeditiously and transparently” and said he expected state law enforcement officials to provide regular updates to the public. He also noted that reporters would be able to easily access communication about the case through the state’s public records laws. Gun charges, he predicted, were “not going to be sufficient” whereas pursuing “the most serious charges” would prevent other bad actors.

The Secret Service on Monday defended its actions over the weekend as “exemplary,” saying agents were able to intervene before Routh could do any harm, and that the former president unexpectedly went golfing so they weren’t able to scope out the area ahead of time. Law enforcement officials said Monday that Routh never had a line of sight on the former president, and that he did not fire a shot.

DeSantis pointed out that when Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, the golf course is “the No. 1 place he goes,” yet Routh had apparently arrived at the course in the middle of the night and Trump’s golf outing had not been on any public schedule. DeSantis — like other Republican elected officials — said that he’d played golf at the course with Trump before and had noticed the area where Trump was golfing on Sunday, near where Routh was waiting, appeared to be a security risk.

The governor also raised the possibility that the state investigation would uncover more information about the Secret Service’s response, including how Routh was allegedly able to be in the area for about 12 hours without being detected, and how he managed to get where he was despite red flags being raised about security during Trump’s golfing over the years. DeSantis insisted, however, that he wasn’t “interested in trying to blame this person or that person” and instead “just get the facts” and release them to the public.

“I think that there's two really significant interests: holding him accountable,” he said, “and then delivering the truth about how this could have happened.”

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.