The trial of the man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump on his golf course last year in West Palm Beach began on Monday, with the defendant being blocked from questioning potential jurors about their views on Gaza and the president’s attempts to acquire Greenland.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 59, is charged with what prosecutors say was a foiled attempt to kill Trump during his presidential campaign in September 2024. He was arrested after a Secret Service agent spotted a man hiding with a rifle in the bushes of a golf course where the president was playing, just one hole away.
Representing himself in court on Monday, Routh also tried to ask jurors what they would do if they were driving and saw a turtle in the road, claiming it would tell him about their character.
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U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off on Routh representing himself during his first appearance in court last month, but blocked many of his questions on Monday due to them being “politically charged.
“They are all really off base and have no relevance to the jury selection process,” Judge Cannon said of Routh’s proposed questions, according to ABC News.
Routh was charged with attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm despite being a felon and possessing a firearm with a wiped-out serial number. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In court filings, Routh has made several references to challenging Trump to physical and sporting competitions.
“A roung [sic] of golf with the racist pig, he wins he can execute me, I win I get his job,” Routh wrote in one filing, referring to the president.
“I think a beatdown session would be more fun and entertaining f or [sic] everyone; give me shackles and cuffs and let the old fat man give it his worst,” he wrote in another.
Routh, a construction worker and Hawaii resident originally from North Carolina, said during the first day that two of his witnesses will not be able to testify in court, with one of them fearing deportation to his home country of Costa Rica.
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Routh’s trial is scheduled to take about one month at a court in Fort Pierce, in the Southern District of Florida, with jury selection expected to take three days.
Prosecutors allege that Routh began planning his attempt after the high-profile, also failed, assassination attempt of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier in his campaign, and that he stockpiled military-grade weapons, more than a dozen burner phones, and researched Trump’s movements and campaign events.
The prosecution also plans to use notes detailing Routh’s plans that he allegedly dropped off with a friend in the months leading up to the attempt.
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