A US court has handed down a life sentence to Ryan Routh for plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump at a Florida golf course before the 2024 election
A man who plotted to assassinate President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course in September 2024, just two months before the US presidential election, has been sentenced to life in prison, concluding one of the most shocking criminal cases of the campaign season.
Ryan Routh, 59, was found guilty last September of attempting to kill then-candidate Trump, in what was the second attempt on the billionaire’s life during the tense run-up to the vote that eventually returned him to the White House.
According to an AFP, Judge Aileen Cannon imposed a sentence of life in prison plus seven additional years after a 90-minute hearing. She said the punishment was necessary “to protect the public from future crime” by Routh.
“The evil is in you. Not in everybody else,” Cannon told him from the bench.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the outcome, calling Routh’s failed plot “a direct assault against our entire democratic system.”
When and why was Ryan Routh arrested?
Routh, who lived in Hawaii, was taken into custody on September 15, 2024, after a Secret Service agent noticed the barrel of a rifle protruding from bushes along the perimetre of the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing. The agent fired, and Routh fled the scene in a vehicle before being arrested a short time later.
Law enforcement officials later recovered a loaded AK-style rifle fitted with a scope, along with a magazine holding extra rounds of ammunition, from the area where Routh had been hiding.
The sentencing followed a highly unusual trial in which Routh chose to act as his own lawyer despite having no formal legal background. Proceedings were frequently disrupted by his strange conduct and unconventional requests while in detention.
Reports from the trial revealed that Routh asked for strippers and a golf putting green in custody, and demanded that jurors be chosen based on their opinions about Gaza and Trump’s interest in purchasing Greenland. All of the requests were denied.
During the sentencing hearing, Routh took the stand and read from a meandering 20-page statement, forcing Judge Cannon to interrupt him several times and insist that he bring his remarks to an end.
“My sentence is totally unimportant. Nothing stands before you, I am nothing but an empty shell,” Routh said.
He described himself as a good person and concluded by saying: “Harming someone is totally wrong. You have to be nice and kind.”
Prosecutor John Shipley had urged the court to impose a life sentence, arguing that Routh spent months planning “a cold-blooded killing” with the “goal of upending American democracy.”
Routh was convicted on all charges, including
attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and assault on a federal officer. After the guilty verdict was announced, he attempted to stab himself in the neck with a pen and was restrained by US marshals.
Testimony during the trial revealed that Routh had previously dropped off a box at his home containing a handwritten note that read: “Dear World. This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I am so sorry I failed you.”
Authorities have not established a clear motive.
The planned attack came just two months after another attempt on Trump’s life in Pennsylvania, when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire at a rally, killing one attendee and grazing Trump’s right ear.
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