Prosecutors said the note and other evidence found at the scene show a need for Routh to be detained while the government builds its case against him.
A court document submitted by federal prosecutors on Monday showed that Ryan Routh, the suspect in the apparent second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, allegedly penned a handwritten note that said it “was an assassination attempt” on the former president.
The note was addressed to the “World” and reads: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster,” according to court papers.
Routh dropped off a box at a person’s home that included the letter, the court documents state.
Law enforcement officials were contacted on Sept. 18, three days after Routh was arrested, by a person who said that Routh dropped off the box at his location in the months prior to the incident. The witness opened the box after learning of Routh’s arrest, finding ammunition, phones, and various letters, according to the court documents.
Prosecutors said the note and other evidence found at the scene show a need for Routh to be detained while the government builds its case against him. A detention hearing is scheduled for Monday morning at a federal court in Florida.
“Because the facts are offered for the limited purpose of supporting the United States’s request for pretrial detention, the facts in this written proffer do not set forth all of the information and evidence known to the United States in this ongoing investigation,” the court documents state.
Prosecutors found “a notebook with dozens of pages filled with names and phone numbers pertaining to Ukraine, discussions about how to join combat on behalf of Ukraine,” the court documents state.
“[The former President] ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled,” Routh allegedly wrote in one of the documents, according to the court papers.
Cellphone records from two of the recovered phones show that Routh traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach on Aug. 14, prosecutors wrote.
