Ryan Routh, the madman who holed up in a sniper’s nest with an assault rifle at one of President Trump’s golf courses, tried to stab himself with a pen in a Florida courtroom Tuesday after he was convicted of attempting to assassinate the then-GOP nominee.
A dramatic scene unfolded as jurors were leaving the courtroom when Routh took a pen and started trying to jab himself in the neck.
Courtroom marshals sprung to action and dragged him out of the room as his daughter, Sara Routh, screamed at her father. “Dad I love you. Don’t do anything. I’ll get you out. He didn’t hurt anybody,” the daughter yelled.
A few minutes later, Routh was brought back into the courtroom with shackles on. He wasn’t wearing the jacket and tie from earlier and his white shirt didn’t show signs of blood. The judge set his sentencing date for Dec. 18, where he will face up to life in prison.
The jurors took about two hours to find Routh, 59, guilty of five federal charges of attempted assassination, assault on a federal officer and gun crimes following a two week trial in Fort Pierce, Fla. court.
After the verdict was read out, Routh took a pen and stabbed himself in the neck. The extent of his injuries was not immediately clear.
Trump in a post on Truth Social later Tuesday thanked the judge and the jury for their “professionalism, and patience,” and thanked the Secret Service agent who stopped Routh for his “instinct and foresight.”
“This was an evil man with an evil intention, and they caught him,” the post read. “A very big moment for JUSTICE IN AMERICA!”
Routh — a construction worker, with no formal legal training — represented himself, putting on an amateur and bizarre defense in which he suggested the case should be settled by a golf match to the death.
He suggested that he and Trump face off on the green, and if Trump won, the president could execute Routh. If Routh won, he proposed, he would become president.
Such wild stunts led the judge to repeatedly slam Routh for running afoul of court rules.
Prosecutors said that Routh plotted for weeks before staking out the Trump International West Palm Beach golf course on Sept. 15, 2024 as Trump was golfing.
Routh was spotted by a Secret Service agent as he was camped out an a sniper’s nest on the edge of the course with an SKS rifle poking through the fence. The agent opened fire, prompting Routh to flee before he ever fired a shot.
The assassination attempt was the second in the span of nine weeks. Michael Thomas Crooks, 20, fired multiple rounds at Trump when he was campaigning in Butler, Pa. on July 13. One bullet grazed Trump’s ear. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service counter sniper.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, stopped Routh’s opening statements after less than 10 minutes, following his rambling comments that touched on topics including prehistoric human history and world leaders including Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This case means absolutely nothing,” Routh told jurors at one point. “A life has been lived to the fullest.”
He also tried to ask prospective panelists during jury selection about their stance on the US taking over Greenland, pro-Palestinian student activism and how they would react if a turtle crossed the road while they were driving. But Cannon blocked the questions, calling them “irrelevant.“
Routh, who in recent years lived in Hawaii, fired his lawyers earlier this summer and was permitted by Cannon to take over his defense. But the judge warned Routh that his prior attorneys would do a better job than he would, and that he would only be allowed to consult with standby lawyers for technical legal questions and not for defense strategy.
Since taking over, Routh has filed a slew of bonkers legal papers, including a witness list in which he sought to call the commander-in-chief himself, activist Mahmoud Khalil and a Secret Service agent he claimed asked him to “spank/slap ass.”
Most of Routh’s 24 proposed witnesses were barred by Cannon from testifying at trial on the grounds they couldn’t offer relevant testimony.
At trial prosecutors called 38 law enforcement witnesses, including the Secret Service agent who foiled his plot, while Routh called just three — two character witnesses and one gun expert. Routh — who pleaded not guilty to all the charges — chose not to testify.
In earlier court filings, Routh asked why his case wasn’t death-penalty eligible and asked to be traded in a prisoner exchange with Hamas, Iran, China and Russia. He also challenged Trump to a game of golf to the death, proposing that if he lost he should be executed and if Trump lost Routh should get his job.
