šŸ“”šŸ“”Man sentenced to life in prison for 2024 attempt on Trump’s life…see morešŸŽžšŸŽž

Ryan Routh has been sentenced to life in prison for attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in September of 2024.

Routh, 59, was found guilty last year of trying to kill Trump, then still a presidential candidate, at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

A US Secret Service agent in the area spotted a rifle barrel poking out of the bushes and fired at Routh, who then fled the scene. He was arrested nearby.

In a sentencing memorandum, Judge Aileen Cannon said Routh’s crimes ā€œundeniably warrant a life sentenceā€.

 

ā€œ[H]e took steps over the course of months to assassinate a major Presidential candidate, demonstrated the will to kill anybody in the way, and has since expressed neither regret nor remorse to his victims,ā€ she wrote.

Routh’s lawyer, Martin Ross, said they would be appealing the case.

Routh pleaded not guilty and elected to represent himself during the trial, which began on 8 September.

A native of North Carolina who lived in Hawaii prior to his arrest, Routh repeatedly acted erratically during the court proceedings, including challenging Trump to a game of golf and making references to Adolf Hitler and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After a jury found him guilty, Routh attempted to stab himself in the neck with a pen before US marshals quickly escorted him out of the courtroom.

While Routh is not believed to have had a clear line of sight to Trump at any point during the incident, federal agents told jurors they later recovered a semiautomatic rifle with a scope and an extended magazine in the spot where he had been hiding.

Additionally, jurors were told that Routh left behind a list of places where Trump was likely to appear, as well as a note for a friend which described the incident as ā€œan assassination attemptā€.

In his closing statement during the trial, Routh spoke in the third person and touched on a wide variety of unrelated topics, including US history, the Russia-Ukraine war and his intention to buy a boat – prompting the judge to repeatedly interrupt him and send the jury away.

The lead prosecutor in the case, John Shipley, said that a ā€œmountain of evidenceā€ was presented which points to ā€œhow close he got to actually pulling this offā€.

The incident in Florida was the second attempt on Trump’s life in 2024, after a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.

That shooting left one person dead and several wounded, including Trump.

The shooter, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was killed by officers at the scene.

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