WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors on Monday criminally charged the gunman suspected of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump, a day after he was spotted with a rifle hiding in the bushes at Trump’s Florida golf course, CNN reported on Monday.
They filed two gun-related charges against the suspect, Ryan Routh, CNN reported, in what is likely a preliminary move to allow authorities to keep him in custody while additional charges are brought.
Agents opened fire on a gunman who was spotted with an assault-style rifle hiding in bushes at one of the former U.S. president’s Florida golf courses, a few hundred yards away from where Trump was playing. The suspect fled by car, leaving behind two backpacks and his weapon, and was later arrested.
Routh appeared in a federal courtroom in West Palm Beach, Florida, a CNN reporter said on social media.
Routh was wearing dark prison scrubs and his hands and feet were shackled, the reporter said.
Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, was safe and unharmed, but the incident raised fresh questions about how an armed suspect was able to get so close to him, just two months after another gunman fired at Trump during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear with a bullet.
The Secret Service, which protects presidential candidates, “needs more help,” including possibly more personnel, President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday morning, adding: “Thank God the president’s OK.”
The agency came under intense scrutiny after the earlier attempt on Trump’s life, which led to the resignation of Director Kimberly Cheatle. The service bolstered Trump’s security detail following the July 13 attack, in which the gunman was shot dead by responding agents.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, who convened a bipartisan task force to investigate after the first assassination attempt, said in a Fox News interview that Congress would also examine the latest incident.
“We need accountability,” said Johnson who also called for more resources to protect Trump. “We must demand that this job is being done.”
Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe traveled to Florida after Sunday’s assassination attempt, according to several news outlets. Rowe, who took over after Cheatle’s resignation in July, told Congress on July 30 he was “ashamed” of security lapses in the earlier attack.
Rowe has been with the 7,800-member Secret Service for 25 years, according to an official biography, rising to the agency’s No. 2 spot before he was promoted in July.
The suspect was identified in multiple media reports as Routh, 58, though authorities have not yet confirmed his identity. Routh was a staunch supporter of Ukraine and had traveled there after Russia’s 2022 invasion, seeking to recruit foreign fighters.
Profiles on X, Facebook and LinkedIn with Routh’s name contained messages of support for Ukraine as well as statements describing Trump as a threat to U.S. democracy.
“@POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose,” read a post on X, tagging Biden.
Reuters was not able to confirm that the accounts belonged to the suspect, and law enforcement agencies declined to comment. Public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed hours after Sunday’s incident.
Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats have cast Trump as a danger to U.S. democracy, citing his effort to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. Harris has promised unwavering support for Ukraine if elected.
Trump has expressed skepticism about the amount of aid the U.S. has provided Ukraine and has vowed to end the war immediately if elected. He told Reuters last year that Ukraine might have to cede some territory to gain peace.
Trump blamed Biden and Harris for the assassination attempt, citing their “rhetoric” and claiming the suspected gunman was acting on Democrats’ “highly inflammatory language.”
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out,” he said, according to Fox.
(This story has been refiled to restore the first reference made to President Joe Biden in paragraph 7)
(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Sarah N. Lynch, additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Andrew Goudsward, Alexandra Ulmer, Mike Stone, Richard Cowan, Jeff Mason, Helen Coster, Jonathan Drake and Anastasiia Malenko; Writing by Joseph Ax and Peter Graff; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)
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