Florida Announces Charges Connected to Trump Assassination Attempt After Being 'Stonewalled' by Feds
The suspect in the Sept. 15 assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump is facing charges in Florida connected with his activities that day.
The state obtained an arrest warrant for Ryan Routh, citing a charge of attempted felony murder, according to an announcement Wednesday by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.
Earlier, Routh was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of attempted assassination, according to the Department of Justice.
On Sept. 15, police said Routh was spotted at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach aiming a gun toward a Secret Service agent who was a hole ahead of where Trump was playing.
In fleeing the scene, Routh seriously injured a 6-year-old girl, according to the news release from Moody’s office.
“Under the leadership of Governor DeSantis, we vowed to bring transparency and accountability to the investigation into the second assassination attempt of President Trump. Despite the federal government frustrating our efforts, which we continue to challenge in court, we found that Mr. Routh’s actions caused catastrophic injuries to a six-year-old girl,” Moody said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered a state investigation of the attempt on Trump’s life and all activities related to it. The release said federal officials have not been cooperative.
“The feds have stonewalled Florida’s investigation of the Trump assassination attempt at every turn, and I appreciate AG Ashley Moody and her team for plowing forward despite such resistance,” DeSantis wrote in a post on social media platform X.
The feds have stonewalled Florida’s investigation of the Trump assassination attempt at every turn, and I appreciate AG Ashley Moody and her team for plowing forward despite such resistance.
The tide will turn on January 20th and we fully expect that the federal roadblocks will… https://t.co/prxzX6BizD
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) December 18, 2024
“The tide will turn on January 20th and we fully expect that the federal roadblocks will be removed. The would-be assassin needs to face the full force of justice and the people deserve the truth about the defendant’s history, motivations and plan,” DeSantis wrote.
During the traffic stop that led to Routh’s arrest, “a tragic accident occurred that seriously injured a six-year-old girl who was traveling with her family,” Moody said.
“The basis for the arrest warrant is that Routh committed an enumerated felony — here, domestic terrorism — and that felony seriously injured and could have killed a six-year-old girl,” the release said.
Moody noted a “lack of cooperation and support from federal agents,” according to Treasure Coast News.
“We immediately were confronted with a lack of willingness to allow us access to the crime scene, an unwillingness to provide evidence that was collected, an unwillingness to allow us to accompany witness interviews, and the list goes on and on,” she said.
“The excuse and the reasoning kept coming back to the need to protect the case and national security,” Moody said.
“I have never been asked to meet with anyone to discuss how national security is implicated in shutting down the state of Florida’s investigation, our statewide prosecutor has never been invited to discuss how national security would merit shutting down our statewide investigation,” she said.
Florida Highway Patrol Col. Gary Howze said there was not much in the way of partnership.
“From the very start, it was clear that we would not have the support of our federal partners,” he said. “In fact, it became very apparent that federal efforts were underway to prevent a concurrent criminal investigation into state law violations.”
By ordering a state probe, he said, DeSantis was “protecting and vindicating not only the sovereign rights of our state and the people, but most importantly, the victims whose lives have been inexplicably and forever harmed by the alleged actions of this defendant.”
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said the issue was not with “your ground-level FBI agent.”
“I would suspect … that this obstruction comes much higher, and probably emanates from some political configuration way above those poor FBI agents,” he said.
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