FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A federal trial is set to start Monday for a man accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump while he was golfing in Florida in September 2024.
The jury selection process is anticipated to last three days, with lawyers questioning three groups of 60 potential jurors. The goal is to select 12 jurors and four alternates. Opening statements are slated for Thursday, followed by the prosecution’s presentation of its case. The court has allocated four weeks for the trial, but attorneys expect it will require less time.
Here’s what to know about the case.
The judge lets Routh represent himself
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon agreed in July to Ryan Routh’s request to defend himself during his trial, but mandated that court-appointed lawyers remain as standby counsel.
The judge expressed to Routh that representing himself might not be wise, but Routh insisted. Routh, who has completed two years of college following the acquisition of his GED certificate, assured Cannon he understood the potential difficulties and would be prepared.
In a recent hearing, Cannon confirmed that Routh would wear professional business attire for the trial. She also informed Routh that he could use a podium for addressing the jury or questioning witnesses, but he would not have unrestricted movement in the courtroom.
“If you make any sudden movements, marshals will take decisive and quick action to respond,” Cannon said.
Routh is a self-styled mercenary leader
The 59-year-old Routh was originally a construction worker from North Carolina who had relocated to Hawaii. Described as a self-proclaimed mercenary leader, Routh regularly shared his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to involve himself in global conflicts with anyone willing to listen, according to witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press.
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he had a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.
In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.
Routh is charged with attempted assassination
Authorities said Routh tried to assassinate Trump, the Republican nominee for presidential, while he played golf at his golf club in West Palm Beach.
Routh is facing five felony counts in federal court in Fort Pierce. They include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm to carry out a violent crime; assaulting a federal officer; felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
In addition to the federal charges, Routh also has pleaded not guilty to state charges of terrorism and attempted murder.
Same judge presided over Trump case
Cannon is the same judge who presided over another high-profile case involving Trump — the classified documents case.
Last year, Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the U.S. Justice Department. Cannon’s ruling halted a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the president faced before he returned to office last January.
Cannon was a former federal prosecutor who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020.
Trump was not hurt by Routh
Trump was uninjured, and there’s no evidence that Routh fired his weapon at the golf course. U.S. Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away. An agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera. He was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.
Last September’s alleged assassination attempt took place just nine weeks after Trump survived another attempt on his life in Pennsylvania.
