Image source: Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney's Office Screenshot
CV NEWS FEED // The Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) released a letter allegedly penned by a man who attempted to shoot former President Donald Trump on September 15. The letter offers a $150,000 reward to anyone who would “finish the job.”
Previously, in a book he had published a year ago, the shooter reportedly told readers in Iran that they “are free to assassinate Trump.”
The suspect’s letter also confirms that the incident, which took place at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, was indeed an assassination attempt. Ryan Routh, 58, brought an AK-47 rifle onto the golf course within a few hundred yards from the former president.
“Dear world,” wrote Routh in the letter published by the DOJ. “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I am so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.”
“It is up to you now to finish the job,” the would-be shooter stated. He indicated that he “will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
A chorus of critics decried the DOJ’s move to release the letter, arguing that it may lead to future assassination attempts against Trump.
>> TRUMP CAMP SAYS WOULD-BE ASSASSIN ‘EGGED ON’ BY DEMOCRATS’ RHETORIC <<
POLITICO reported on Monday that, according to DOJ prosecutors, Routh “placed the chilling handwritten letter in a box containing tools and building materials left at the home of an unnamed associate.”
Routh placed the letter “in the months before the foiled assassination attempt,” The New York Post noted.
The Post reported that the same “box also contained ‘ammunition, a metal pipe, miscellaneous building materials, tools, four phones’ and multiple other letters.”
Per the Post, the letter in which Routh posed the $150,000 reward was “only discovered after the person opened the box and alerted authorities in the wake of Routh’s arrest, prosecutors said.”
The New York Times reported that in his “prewritten note,” the eventual gunman “predicted his failure” to assassinate Trump.
The Times further reported that on the day of the assassination attempt, Routh’s AK-47,
equipped with a scope and left at the scene, had a bullet in the chamber and a total of 11 rounds. Investigators also found Mr. Routh’s fingerprint on the weapon.
Later in his letter, Routh claimed that “everyone across the globe” knows “that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a US president.”
He went on: “U.S. presidents must at bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity.”
Routh also argued that Trump “ended relations with Iran like a child.” Iran is widely regarded as an enemy of the United States.
POLITICO added that “Routh wrote a rambling, self-published book last year that bitterly denounced Trump and appeared to call for his killing by Iran over his decision to back out of the deal to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program.”
In the text, Routh wrote:
You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment for the dismantling of the deal. No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection.
Routh’s use of the phrase “error in judgment” was in reference to his previous support of Trump. He apologized to Iran for once backing the man he would go on to attempt to kill.
X (formerly Twitter) user James Reichert scrutinized the DOJ’s move to release Routh’s “Dear world” letter to the media and the public.
“The DOJ releasing a letter with an active bounty on Trump’s life is beyond reckless,” Reichert wrote. “How did this not get intercepted earlier? This is only going to incite more violence.”
X user Sara Rose agreed, writing: “Releasing this letter is only going to escalate the assassination attempts.”
“Not the Bee,” the news outlet of the Christian satire website The Babylon Bee, wrote on X: “The feds don’t like to release manifestos, but they released this letter from Trump’s would-be assassin that offers a $150,000 bounty in case he failed.”
The post was likely in reference to the manifesto of a “transgender” school shooter, which the FBI failed to release in the year-and-a-half since the shooting killed three children and three adults. The FBI is an agency of the DOJ.
In addition, POLITICO’s Monday report noted:
As part of their search warrant of Routh’s vehicle, investigators also uncovered two additional license plates, 12 pairs of gloves and six cell phones, one of which recently showed a Google search of how to travel from West Palm Beach to Mexico. A notebook had dozens of pages with names and phone numbers pertaining to Ukraine and details about how to join combat in its war against Russia.
Routh was a Hawaii resident at the time he attempted to assassinate Trump. The shooter is originally from North Carolina.
According to a POLITICO report from September 16 – the day after the assassination attempt – cell phone data suggests that Routh “may have waited near his golf course for nearly 12 hours” while in pursuit of Trump.
The report went on to note that several pieces of evidence suggest Routh has been a recent supporter of the Biden-Harris administration and the Democratic Party:
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.
