FORT PIERCE — Seconds into Ryan Routh’s opening statement, prosecutors lodged their first objection. The typewritten statement, more a rhapsody than a presentation of evidence, was impermissible, they said.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon let him carry on anyway. It was a win for Routh, representing himself in court against charges of plotting to assassinate Donald Trump, but a short-lived one. Three minutes in — after he’d invoked Adolf Hitler, mused tearfully over peaceful meetings between humans 1.5 million years ago, and asked jurors “Why are we here?” — prosecutors objected again for the same reason.
This time, Cannon agreed. She had limited patience, she said, and wouldn’t tolerate Routh “making a mockery of this court’s dignity.” She gave him one more chance.
“This case means absolutely nothing,” Routh told the jury of 12, whose verdict will decide whether he faces life in federal prison. “A life has already been lived.”
Prosecutors objected for the third and final time at the same moment that Cannon interrupted Routh herself. His statement was over, she said.
Prosecutors: Routh staged ‘deadly serious’ plot at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club
Prosecutors used 46 minutes — one minute longer than Cannon allowed — to make their own statement. Routh listened from the defense table, swiveling slowly in his chair, as Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley described “a carefully crafted and deadly serious” plot to kill Trump, then-Republican nominee, on Sept. 15, 2024.
” ‘Trump cannot be elected,’ ” Shipley said, reading aloud from a selection of Routh’s online messages. ” ‘He needs to go away.’ “
Routh didn’t react or object as Shipley walked jurors through the alleged steps he took to carry out his plan. It began with an illegal gun purchase in North Carolina, brokered by an old friend of Routh’s who didn’t know his intentions, Shipley said.
The prosecutor then counted off the three stolen license plates, six burner phones and three aliases Routh cycled through during his 800-mile drive from North Carolina to West Palm Beach, efforts the prosecutor said were meant to keep his movement untraceable.
Routh had no other reason to be in South Florida, the prosecutor said. He wasn’t homeless. He traded his waterfront home in Honolulu for a parking space in a truck stop in South Bay under the alias “Ryan Wilson.” The truck stop was the kind of place where “nobody bothers you, no one asks questions,” Shipley said.
Shipley said Routh visited Trump International Golf Club 17 times, always in the middle of the night, in the weeks leading up to Trump’s visit to the course.
“Ladies and gentlemen, he was not there to play golf in the middle of the night,” Shipley said.
The prosecutor said he was there to scout out the best place for “sniper’s hive.” He found it in the shrubbery facing the course’s sixth hole, Shipley said, where he “expected his target to die.”
Routh never objected, nor did he appear to take notes. He just listened as the prosecutor listed off the witnesses expected to testify, including the man who sold him the rifle, the woman who brokered the deal, the Secret Service agent who spotted him on the golf course as Trump teed off one hole away, and the man who took a photo of Routh’s car as he sped away from the scene.
Each will be called to the witness stand over the next three weeks, though prosecutors have said the trial could run shorter.
Routh, who has pleaded not guilty, has indicated that his defense will center largely on his character, citing Eagle Scout commendations and community service. He touched on it briefly during his opening statement — “Intent is the whole of who we are” — before prosecutors made the first of three objections.
Routh’s witness list evolved through the morning of trial, as has the body of evidence he hoped to show jurors. Prosecutors said he gave them 100 exhibits on the eve of opening statements, “not a single one of which has any basis whatsoever for admissibility.”
Routh faces charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and firearms violations. If convicted of the first charge, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump assassination plot trial: Routh’s statement called a ‘mockery’