A Florida jury found Routh guilty on all five counts, including attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer.
FORT PIERCE, Fla.—Ryan Routh attempted to stab himself with a pen in a Florida courtroom after a jury on Sept. 23 found him guilty of attempting to assassinate then-presidential nominee Donald Trump in September 2024.
After Routh attempted to stab himself, officers quickly jumped to restrain him. His daughter, Sara Routh, responded by yelling and saying, “this is all rigged.”
Officers eventually brought Routh back to the courtroom in shackles.
Prior to the end of deliberations, the jury briefly came back into the courtroom to inspect a few pieces of evidence, including the gun, the magazine, the ammunition, and several pieces of large round ammunition. The jury then resumed deliberations but quickly returned with the verdict.
Routh appeared stoic while the verdict was being read, but was shaking slightly with his body moving back and forth slowly. After the verdict, his daughter could be heard saying, “I’ll get you out dad, I promise.”
Justice Department attorney John Shipley added to the record that both Routh’s and his daughter’s outbursts occurred before the jury left the room.
Routh’s sentencing is set for Dec. 18.
Routh, who represented himself in the case, was found guilty of all five charges in his indictment: attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; assaulting a federal officer; being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Trump hailed the verdict and thanked authorities, including the Justice Department, for their handling of the issue.
“This was an evil man with an evil intention, and they caught him,” Trump said in a post to TruthSocial.
“The trial was meticulously handled, and I would like to thank the Judge and Jury for their time, professionalism, and patience,” Trump said.
Routh was indicted last year for attempting to assassinate Trump after entering the tree line at the president’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, 2024, and waiting for him for hours in a “hideout” behind a chain-link fence.
Routh was staking out the golf course’s sixth hole with an SKS-style semiautomatic rifle, two bags affixed to the fence with bulletproof plates inside, and several other items authorities found—such as flashlights and Vienna sausages—after he fled onto an adjacent street, prosecutors said.
The defendant represented himself in the trial, and said his defense argument centered on proving his “gentleness and nonviolence.” Two longtime associates appeared on the witness stand on Monday and testified about Routh’s past efforts at community engagement and helping friends and family.
Prosecutors disputed this portrayal by questioning Routh’s witnesses about their lack of contact with him over the past seven years, and by piecing together various items of evidence purporting to show Routh’s premeditated intention to assassinate Trump and other political targets.
Prosecutors also triangulated Routh’s movements and whereabouts leading up to the assassination attempt with data from his various cellphones recovered the day of the incident, attempting to prove he was both “stalking” Trump and planning for months to kill the president, who was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee at the time.
The verdict came just more than two hours after jurors entered deliberation on Sept. 23. Both sides had presented closing arguments.
During his arguments, Routh tried to cast doubt on the idea that he intended to kill Trump and portrayed himself as someone who wouldn’t kill another person.
“If the intent was there, it would have happened,” Routh said.
He was also stopped multiple times by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for straying from the evidence at issue in the trial. The Justice Department urged the jury to use common sense and said that various pieces of evidence pointed to Routh’s guilt.
Opening arguments began nearly a year after the incident on Sept. 15, 2024, and just a day after the assassination of conservative commentator and Trump ally Charlie Kirk. It followed a lengthy pretrial period in which Routh decided to represent himself and submitted various court documents, such as one requesting to subpoena Trump and suggesting a golf match with the president that would end with either Routh dying or becoming president himself.
By Jacob Burg
