A man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course last summer tried to buy a rocket launcher as well as an anti-aircraft missile from a person he thought was a Ukrainian arms dealer, court papers filed on Monday assert.
The documents add substantial additional details to the justice department’s case against Ryan Routh, 59, who allegedly made several “reconnaissance” trips to West Palm Beach from his North Carolina home ahead of the alleged assassination attempt on 15 September last year.
Routh, the filing states, made an “August 2024 attempt to acquire anti-aircraft weapons”, which prosecutors say provides direct evidence of an assassination attempt tied to his surveillance of Palm Beach international airport, where Trump – then running for the presidency as the Republican presidential candidate at the time – would come and go.
“I need equipment so that Trump cannot get elected,” Routh wrote to an online contact he believed was a Ukrainian with direct access to military weapons.
“Send me an rpg [rocket-propelled grenade] or stinger [anti-aircraft missile] and I will see what we can do … [Trump] is not good for Ukraine.”
The filing does not explain who the contact Routh was corresponding with actually was. But it states that the conversation was “in itself a substantial step taken in furtherance of his plot”.
The filing states: “Attempting to purchase a destructive device to blow up President Trump’s airplane lies squarely within the realm of an attempt on his life, and Routh’s statements about the purpose of the purchase drives home his intent.”
Routh has pleaded not guilty to five charges, including the attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, during a brief hearing in West Palm Beach two weeks after he allegedly camped out for 12 hours at the Trump International golf course armed with an illegally owned semi-automatic rifle.
The barrel of the weapon was spotted by a member of Trump’s Secret Service protection team, who fired at Routh. The suspect, who did not fire his own rifle, fled before Trump’s golf party came into sight, and he was arrested by sheriff’s deputies in a neighboring county. He left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope attached and an extended magazine, as well as a plastic bag containing food.
Monday’s filing, in federal court in the southern district of Florida, where his case is being overseen by the Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon, lays out in detail for the first time the “significant steps” Routh is said to have taken in support of his plot to murder Trump.
Prosecutors have said Routh even set up a “sniper hide” at the course.
As well as the efforts to buy the rocket launcher and missile, Routh – described as a complicated individual with multiple previous arrests – attempted to buy a .50-caliber rifle and ammunition from a dealer in the Fort Pierce area.
The 21-page filing said he was unsuccessful, having also scoured gun stores in Hawaii – where he had lived with a girlfriend – and conducted extensive online searches.
Such a weapon, prosecutors said, “would have been an even more destructive and powerful version of the rifle he already obtained”, and “this doggedness on his part is relevant to proving his intent to commit the assassination”.
Other new revelations include how Routh corresponded with a man in Mexico, identified as “Ramiro”, on WhatsApp between February and September last year, which the prosecutors state was an attempt to “coordinate his post-assassination escape”. Ramiro, they say, had experience in smuggling families across borders and allegedly arranged to meet Routh in Mexico City soon after 15 September.
Most of the new allegations, the justice department said, is intrinsic evidence “inextricably linked” with the charged offenses, and it is intended to help “tell the full story” of Routh’s activities before and during the assassination attempt.
The September incident came almost exactly two months after another gunman opened fire on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, before he went on to defeat Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the 5 November 2024 election. The Pennsylvania gunman killed one spectator while wounding two others before being shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
Routh’s trial is scheduled to begin on 8 September this year, and he faces up to life imprisonment if convicted.
