FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A federal trial is scheduled to begin Monday for a man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump as he played golf in Florida in September 2024.
Jury selection is expected to take three days, with attorneys questioning three sets of 60 prospective jurors. They’re trying to find 12 jurors and four alternates. Opening statements are scheduled to begin Thursday, and prosecutors will begin their case immediately after that. The court has blocked off four weeks for the trial, but attorneys are expecting they’ll need less time.
Here’s what to know about the case.
The judge lets Routh represent himself
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off in July on Ryan Routh’s request to represent himself during his trial, but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel.
The judge told Routh she believes it’s a bad idea for Routh to represent himself, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood the potential challenges and would be ready.
Cannon confirmed during a hearing earlier this week that Routh would be dressed in professional business attire for the trial. She also explained to Routh that he would be allowed to use a podium while speaking to the jury or questioning witnesses, but he would not have free rein of the courtroom.
“If you make any sudden movements, marshals will take decisive and quick action to respond,” Cannon said.
Routh is a self-styled mercenary leader
The 59-year-old Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told The Associated Press.
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he had a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.
In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.
Routh is charged with attempted assassination
Authorities said Routh tried to assassinate Trump, the Republican nominee for presidential, while he played golf at his golf club in West Palm Beach.
Routh is facing five felony counts in federal court in Fort Pierce. They include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm to carry out a violent crime; assaulting a federal officer; felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
In addition to the federal charges, Routh also has pleaded not guilty to state charges of terrorism and attempted murder.
Same judge presided over Trump case
Cannon is the same judge who presided over another high-profile case involving Trump — the classified documents case.
Last year, Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the U.S. Justice Department. Cannon’s ruling halted a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the president faced before he returned to office last January.
Cannon was a former federal prosecutor who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020.
Trump was not hurt by Routh
Trump was uninjured, and there’s no evidence that Routh fired his weapon at the golf course. U.S. Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away. An agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera. He was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.
Last September’s alleged assassination attempt took place just nine weeks after Trump survived another attempt on his life in Pennsylvania.