The man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump after allegedly positioning himself with a rifle outside one of the former president’s Florida golf courses on Sept. 15 pleaded not guilty on Monday to five federal charges.
Ryan Routh, 58, entered the plea to charges that include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate during a hearing in federal court. He has already been ordered to remain in jail to await a trial.
Prosecutors have said Routh intended to kill Trump as he golfed at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Routh, a struggling roofing contractor, condemned the Republican presidential candidate in a self-published book and dropped off a letter left months earlier with an associate referencing an attempted assassination on Trump, according to prosecutors.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” the suspect wrote, according to a court filing by prosecutors.
Lawyers for Routh suggested at a Sept. 23 court hearing that the letter may have been an attempt by their client at gaining publicity and highlighted what they called Routh’s efforts to promote democracy in Ukraine and Taiwan.
Routh hid outside a fence overlooking the sixth hole of the course, where authorities found an AK-47-style rifle, a bag of snacks, a digital camera and bags containing metal plates meant to withstand return fire by the U.S. Secret Service, according to prosecutors.