Man who staked out Trump at Florida golf course charged with attempting an assassination

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who authorities say staked out Donald Trump for 12 hours on his golf course in Florida and wrote of his desire to kill him was indicted Tuesday on an attempted assassination charge.

Ryan Wesley Routh had been initially charged with two federal firearms offenses. The upgraded charges contained in a five-count indictment reflect the Justice Department's assessment that he methodically plotted to kill the Republican nominee, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery surrounding Trump's West Palm Beach golf course on an afternoon Trump was playing on it. Routh left behind a note in which he described his intention, prosecutors said.

Court records show the case has been assigned to Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge who generated intense scrutiny for her handling of a criminal case charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She dismissed that case in July, a decision now being appealed by special counsel Jack Smith's team.

The attempted assassination indictment had been foreshadowed during a court hearing Monday in which prosecutors successfully argued for the 58-year-old Routh to remain behind bars as a flight risk and a threat to public safety.

They alleged that he had written of his plans to kill Trump in a handwritten note months before his Sept. 15 arrest in which he referred to his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 for anyone who could “finish the job.” That note was in a box that Routh had apparently dropped off at the home of an unidentified witness months before his arrest.

The person opened the letter, took a photograph of the front page of the letter, addressed “Dear World,” and contacted law enforcement after the attempted assassination.

Prosecutors also said Routh kept in his car a handwritten list of venues in August, September and October at which Trump had appeared or was expected to be present.

The charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate carries a potential life sentence in the event of a conviction. Other charges in the indictment include assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and the two original firearms charges he faced last week.

The potential shooting was thwarted when a member of Trump’s Secret Service protective detail spotted a partially obscured man's face and a rifle barrel protruding through the golf course fence line, ahead of where Trump was playing. The agent fired in the direction of Routh, who sped away and was stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.

Routh did not fire any rounds and did not have Trump in his line of sight, officials have said, but he left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food.

The arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has acknowledged failings leading up to that shooting but has said that security worked as it should have to thwart a potential attack in Florida.

The initial charges Routh faced in a criminal complaint accused him of illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. It is common for prosecutors to bring preliminary and easily provable charges upon an arrest and then add more serious offenses later as the investigation develops.

The FBI had said at the outset that it was investigating the episode as an apparent assassination attempt, but the absence of an immediate charge to that effect opened the door for Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to announce his own state-level investigation that he said could produce more serious charges.

Trump, seeking to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the investigation and the Justice Department more broadly, complained Monday — before the attempted assassination charge was brought — that federal prosecutors were “mishandling and downplaying” the case by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”

Asked at an unrelated press conference about Trump’s criticism Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “would spare no resources to ensure accountability” in the case.

“All of our top priority should be ensuring that accountability occurs in this case and that those who run for office and their families are safe and protected,” Garland said.

The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched Routh's car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.

A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.

In addition, prosecutors have cited a book authored by Routh last year in which he lambasted Trump’s approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In the book, he wrote that Iran was “free to assassinate Trump” for having left the nuclear deal.

Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Curt Anderson contributed to this report.

Man who staked out Trump at Florida golf course charged with attempting an assassination

Man who staked out Trump at Florida golf course charged with attempting an assassination

Ryan Wesley Routh takes part in a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

The Pac-12 is suing the Mountain West over what it calls an unlawful and unenforceable “poaching penalty” that would cost the rebuilding conference more than $40 million for adding Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State and San Diego State, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court.

The antitrust complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California and is seeking a declaratory judgment by a judge.

“The action challenges an anticompetitive and unlawful ‘Poaching Penalty’ that the MWC imposed on the Pac-12 to inhibit competition for member schools in collegiate athletics," the lawsuit said.

The Mountain West has exit fees of upward of $17 million for departing schools. Those fees can increase depending on how much advance notice a school provides, and are not at issue in the lawsuit.

The Pac-12 is challenging poaching fees that were put in place in the Mountain West's football scheduling agreement for this season with Oregon State and Washington State, the only current Pac-12 members this season.

The fee starts at $10 million and increases by an increment of $500,000 for every additional school the Pac-12 adds from the Mountain West. With four already on board, the total is $43 million.

Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement the Pac-12 agreed to the fees and acknowledged that they were essential to her conference members.

“The provision was put in place to protect the Mountain West Conference from this exact scenario. It was obvious to us and everyone across the country that the remaining members of the Pac-12 were going to try to rebuild,” she said. “The fees at issue were included to ensure the future viability of the Mountain West and allow our member institutions to continue providing critical resources and opportunities for our student-athletes. At no point in the contracting process did the Pac-12 contend that the agreement that it freely entered into violated any laws.”

The Pac-12 also extended invitations on Monday to Mountain West schools Utah State and UNLV.

Utah State was admitted, according to the lawsuit, though neither the school nor the conference has made an official announcement.

Adding Utah State and UNLV would cost the Pac-12 another $24.5 million and leave the Mountain West with only six members, two short of what is required to be recognized by the NCAA and College Football Playoff.

The Pac-12 contends in the lawsuit that the “severe” exit fees the Mountain West has in place already compensate for the loss of departing members.

The Pac-12 argues the poaching penalty had nothing to do with the intent of the deal between Oregon State and Washington State and the Mountain West, which was to provide those schools with six football opponents this year for a $14 million payment to the league.

“It extends beyond the Scheduling Agreement's terms, it does not affect the schedule in any respect, and it does not in any way impact the amount of football played, games scheduled or anything related to the 2024-25 scheduling of games,” the lawsuit said.

“Instead, the Poaching Penalty serves only to increase the MWC's profits by locking up its member schools and preventing them from leaving for a competitor (Pac-12)."

The scheduling deal was not renewed for next year.

Oregon State and Washington State are in the first year of a two-year NCAA grace period during which they are operating the Pac-12 as a two-team conference.

By 2026, the Pac-12 needs at least eight members to be recognized as a conference by the NCAA and CFP.

The first phase of Pac-12 expansion began two weeks ago when it announced the additions of Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Colorado State, four of the Mountain West's traditionally most successful football programs.

The Pac-12 then targeted a group of American Athletic Conference schools but was rebuffed by Memphis, UTSA, Tulane and South Florida.

As the Pac-12 pivoted back to Mountain West schools, the Mountain West was trying to lock up its eight remaining members through a grant of rights agreement that binds schools together through the conference via television rights.

Some Mountain West schools signed a memorandum of understanding and returned it to the conference on Monday, but when Utah State did not, it allowed the others to reconsider.

Now, with the Pac-12 suing the Mountain West, it's unclear whether either conference can move forward.

Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

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Pac-12 files federal lawsuit against Mountain West over $43 million in 'poaching' penalties

FILE - The Pac-12 logo at Sun Devil Stadium during the second half of an NCAA college football game between Arizona State and Kent State in Tempe, Ariz., Aug. 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Ralph Freso, File)

Pac-12 files federal lawsuit against Mountain West over $43 million in 'poaching' penalties