Ryan Routh, who is accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump in September, is trying to have witness testimony tossed out of his trial.
Routh faces charges of attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number in connection with a Sept. 15 incident at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Routh never fired a shot, but he allegedly hid in some brush near the sixth hole with a rifle while the then-Republican presidential nominee was golfing at another hole nearby.
A Secret Service agent doing a security sweep ahead of Trump “observed the barrel of a rifle aimed directly at him,” according to a Department of Justice statement. “As the agent began backing away, he saw the rifle barrel move, and the agent fired at Routh.”
The suspect then fled, but was arrested after a manhunt. Authorities later said the incident was the culmination of weeks of plotting by Routh.
Routh’s attorneys are taking aim at an eyewitness whose identification of Routh was critical to him being taken into custody, according to CBS.
Attorneys are claiming that when the witness was interviewed, authorities were “impermissibly suggestive” and only showed the witness one photo of Routh.
The witness, identified only as TCM, told police a man fled the golf course in a black Nissan. The witness’s information was used to detain Routh.
Routh’s lawyers are attacking the witness’s statement, noting that the windows of his car were up when he said he heard shots from the golf course, which would have been Secret Service agents shooting toward where Routh was hiding.
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The witness told police the man he saw dropped objects into the sunroof of a vehicle. Routh’s vehicle does not have a sunroof.
The witness said the person he saw was “a white male, 6’2″ in height, light colored hair, and wearing a dark shirt and dark pants,” and described him as “a younger male in his twenties.” Routh is 58, with light hair and a slim build.
Once Routh was detained and shown to the witness, the filing said TCM “had dozens of law enforcement from numerous state and federal agencies watching him, thousands of stranded pedestrians on the highway awaiting this airlift and show-up, and knowledge that his identification was necessary in a case involving presidential candidate Donald Trump.”
“All of these circumstances created a heightened pressure to make the identification. It would not be difficult for any well-meaning individual to identify the one, and only, person law enforcement presented to them in this manner,” the filing said.
The filing noted a police report that said: “Upon seeing the detained person, [TCM] notices that the person had the same hair and build. TCM asked to see the side profile of the person and identified him as the person he saw running from the bushes along the south side of the Trump National Golf Course,” according to Newsweek.
🚨BREAKING: The DOJ revealed that Trump assassin Ryan Routh tried to buy military weapons from Ukraine to kill Trump, including a ROCKET LAUNCHER.
Routh asked the Ukrainian Military for a “Stinger or RPG to take out Trump”because Trump would be “Bad for Ukraine”
Routh goes on… pic.twitter.com/u6qHldOup1
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 8, 2025
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors filed a document alleging Routh wanted to get military-grade weapons from a contact in Ukraine, according to Fox News.
A court document indicated Routh told an associate to “send me a rpg [rocket-propelled grenade] or stinger, and I will see what we can do… [Trump] is not good for Ukraine.” The document added that Routh wrote, “I need equipment so that Trump cannot get elected.”
Routh said weapons get lost “all the time on the battlefield” and “one missing would not be noticed,” the filing said.
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