Convicted would-be Trump assassin tries to stab himself with pen after verdict
The man convicted of attempting to assassinate President Trump while he golfed last year in South Florida tried to stab himself with a pen after a federal jury handed down the guilty verdict Tuesday afternoon.
Ryan Routh was convicted on all five counts he faced after jurors deliberated for two hours. The charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
After the verdict was announced and jurors started leaving the courtroom, Routh grabbed a pen and attempted to stab himself in the neck with it, prompting U.S. Marshals to intervene, according to The Hill’s sister network NewsNation.
They dragged him out of the courtroom, as his daughter, Sara Routh, screamed.
“Dad, I love you, don’t do anything,” she said, according to The Associated Press. “I’ll get you out. He didn’t hurt anybody.”
Following the incident, Routh was brought back before the judge in shackles. He was no longer wearing a jacket and tie, and there were no signs of blood on his shirt.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon set his sentencing for Dec. 18.
Routh was convicted after a two-week trial where he defended his own case.
Federal prosecutors questioned 38 witnesses over seven days to prove to jurors that Routh sent weeks planning to kill Trump before he pushed the muzzle of a rifle through the perimeter of his West Palm Beach golf course in September of last year, near the sixth hole.
Routh was spotted before Trump came into view, a Secret Service agent testified. He shot at Routh, who fled without firing a shot back.
But the government argued the fact Routh didn’t pull the trigger shouldn’t stop the panel from reaching a guilty verdict.
“If the evidence in this case has shown one thing and one thing only: It’s that Ryan Wesley Routh wanted Donald Trump dead,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Browne said in closing remarks, according to NewsNation.
Routh argued the opposite. He said he’s incapable of killing a person, zeroing in on the shootout that never was and suggesting he had no intent to do so, as prosecutors alleged.
“It’s hard for me to believe that a crime occurred if the trigger was never pulled,” the defendant said during closing arguments that also veered off topic to touch on Adolf Hitler and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, according to The Associated Press.
Routh called just three witnesses in his three-hour defense case: a firearms expert and two character witnesses. He did not take the stand himself.
On Monday, Sara Routh told NewsNation she thought the trial was “rigged.”
She said Cannon, the judge, “should have recused herself from the beginning,” noting her link to Trump. Cannon oversaw the president’s classified documents case, which was dismissed after he took back the White House, regularly earning his praise.
“If anybody has a heart in the jury, then they’ll see that my father doesn’t deserve it,” she told NewsNation.
Routh was convicted of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; assaulting a federal officer; possessing a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon; and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, in addition to the count of attempted assassination.
His attempt on Trump’s life was the second against the then-presidential candidate last year.
Trump faced another assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., in July. That shooter was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper seconds after firing at Trump and nicking his ear.
Updated at 4:08 p.m. EDT