Suspected would-be assassin offered a bounty on Trump's head, prosecutors reveal

Federal prosecutors revealed in a Monday filing that Ryan Routh, the 58-year-old Democratic donor suspected of trying to assassinate Kamala Harris' opponent on Sept. 15, previously offered an international bounty on President Donald Trump's head and had foreknowledge of Trump's whereabouts.

According to the filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a civilian witness approached law enforcement days after Routh's Sept. 15 arrest, indicating the suspected would-be assassin had dropped off a box at his residence several months prior.

'It is up to you now to finish the job.'

Upon learning of the assassination attempt, the witness, who is unnamed in the filing, apparently opened the box. There, he reportedly found ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, four phones, and a number of letters, including one addressed to "The World."

Routh's appeal to murderers abroad, which largely reads like Harris campaign literature, allegedly states:

Dear World, This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job. Everyone across the globe from the youngest to the oldest know that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a US president. U.S. presidents must at bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity.

While the Department of Justice disclosed the first page of the letter, the remainder was not shared. However, the filing indicated that the letter does at one point state, "He [the former President] ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled."

Donald Trump Jr. asked on X, "WTF!? Why is Kamala's DOJ publicizing Ryan Wesley Routh putting a bounty on my dad's head???"

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) suggested, "The DOJ, which is trying to put Trump in prison, is now offering a bounty on Trump's head by releasing this. Why else would they release this?"

Routh's letter to killers abroad echoes what he wrote in his self-published 2023 book, "Ukraine's Unwinnable War."

In the book, Routh — who made around 20 small donations to Democrats through ActBlue between 2019 and 2020 and who the Department of Homeland Security declined to investigate despite previous complaints — apologized to Iranians for Trump dismantling the nuclear deal and noted, "You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment."

Routh added, "No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection."

Prosecutors indicated that the box Routh dropped off with the witness also contained a handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October and corresponding venues indicating where Trump had appeared or was anticipated to show up.

It's presently unclear whether the dates and locations were all public knowledge. However, acting USSS Director Ronald Rowe told reporters last week that Trump "wasn't supposed to have gone there in the first place," referencing his Sept. 15 visit to the golf course.

There was also a notebook in the box filled with names and phone numbers linked to Ukraine along with "discussions about how to join combat on behalf of Ukraine."

Blaze News previously reported that Routh fancied himself an international recruiter for Ukrainian forces and ran the website "Fight for Ukraine." Although Ukraine's foreign legion reportedly figured him for a charlatan, he was featured in multiple mainstream reports about international recruitment.

In addition to attempting to help Afghan militants qualify to fight against Russia in Ukraine, Routh was apparently a cheerleader for the Ukrainian brigade associated with neo-Nazis since its inception. He appears at the 1:50-minute mark in a 2022 video of a Ukrainian demonstration in support of the Azov Brigade.

The Azov Brigade said in a statement last week that it "has no connection" to Routh.

The court filing noted further that the FBI obtained cell site records for two of the phones found in the vehicle Routh reportedly used to flee the scene of the alleged assassination attempt.

The records indicated that Routh traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach on Aug. 14.

Between Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, Routh's phone allegedly accessed cell towers near Trump's golf course and Mar-a-Lago residence on numerous occasions.

Extra to revealing Routh's apparent willingness to outsource Trump's assassination to foreign killers and his apparent foreknowledge of Trump's whereabouts, prosecutors highlighted ahead of Routh's detention hearing Monday that on Dec. 20, 2002, the Ukraine-war obsessive was convicted in North Carolina for possession of a weapon of mass destruction — a "binary explosive device" — as well as in 2010 for multiple counts of possession of stolen goods.

Blaze News previously reported that when Routh appeared in court on Dec. 18, 2002, his bond amount was increased to $100,000, and he was ordered released Dec. 18 by Superior Court Judge Peter M. McHugh. Days later, Routh entered a plea agreement that led to dismissal of the explosives charge, and his bond was reduced to $10,000.

Rather than serve up to 19 months in prison, Routh was ultimately ordered to serve 60 months of probation and to pay a $225 fine.

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