‘I want to find out about the two assassins. … why did one guy have six cell phones and why did the other guy have [foreign] apps?’ the president says.
President Donald Trump said he wants the Secret Service to provide him with information about the two attempts on his life last year, including details about both suspects—Ryan Routh and Thomas Matthew Crooks.
“I’m entitled to know,” Trump told the New York Post in an exclusive interview published on Feb. 8. “I want to find out about the two assassins. … Why did the one guy have six cell phones and why did the other guy have [foreign] apps?”
Routh had multiple cellular phones in his car, according to federal prosecutors in a detention memo released in September. Regarding the apps, Trump was referring to reports, citing anonymous sources, that Crooks’s phone had foreign encrypted apps.
The president alleged that information related to the attempts was withheld by the administration of his predecessor President Joe Biden.
“No more holding back because of Biden. … I’m entitled to know. And they held it back long enough,” Trump told the newspaper. “No excuses.”
Routh, 58, was arrested after allegedly lying in wait for the president as he played golf at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15.
He was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, according to a Department of Justice statement.
Prosecutors said Routh had methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks. According to allegations in the criminal complaint, a Secret Service agent saw what appeared to be a rifle poking out of the tree line on the golf course and fired his service weapon in the direction of the rifle. After that, a witness saw a man later identified as Routh fleeing the area.
