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FORT PIERCE, Florida: A jury took two hours Tuesday to convict a man of federal charges for attempting to assassinate Donald Trump as he played golf one year ago in Florida.
Chaos ensued in the courtroom shortly after the verdict when Ryan Routh tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen. He was found guilty of all counts by a jury of five men and seven women. Officers quickly swarmed him and dragged him out of the courtroom.
The pen Routh used to try to stab himself was a flexible pen designed to prevent people in custody from using it as a weapon, so he did not puncture his skin or otherwise hurt himself, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person could not publicly disclose specific details of the incident and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
As marshals were dragging him from the courtroom, Routh’s daughter Sara Routh began screaming, “Dad, I love you, don’t do anything. I’ll get you out. He didn’t hurt anybody.”
She continued screaming as her father was taken from the courtroom, saying the case against him was rigged. She was escorted from the courtroom and later waited outside with her brother Adam Routh for the motorcade that took their father away.
Back inside the courtroom, Routh was brought before the judge, no longer wearing a jacket and tie. During the trial, Routh, who was representing himself, was not shackled. But when he was brought before the judge after the attempted stabbing, he wore shackles.
The judge announced Routh will be sentenced on Dec. 18 at 9:30 a.m. He faces life in prison.
Routh’s standby defense attorneys did not have a comment following the verdict.
Assassination attempt planned for weeks, prosecutors say
Routh had been 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 and ammunition as a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges and defended himself in court.
Following the verdict, Trump told reporters in New York that the case was “really well handled.”
“It’s very important. You can’t let things like that happen. Nothing to do with me, but a president — or even a person, you can’t allow that to happen,” Trump said. “And so justice was served. But I very much appreciate the judge and jury and everybody on that.”
Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the Republican played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.
Routh told jurors in his closing argument that he didn’t intend to kill anyone that day.
“It’s hard for me to believe that a crime occurred if the trigger was never pulled,” Routh said. He pointed out that he could see Trump as he was on the path toward the sixth-hole green at the golf course and noted that he also could have shot a Secret Service agent who confronted him if he had intended to harm anyone.
Routh elected to represent himself
Routh, 59, exercised his constitutional right not to testify in his own defense. He rested his case Monday morning after questioning just three witnesses — a firearms expert and two characters witnesses — for a total of about three hours. In contrast, prosecutors spent seven days questioning 38 witnesses.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that the guilty verdict “illustrates the Department of Justice’s commitment to punishing those who engage in political violence.”
“This attempted assassination was not only an attack on our President, but an affront to our very nation,” Bondi said.
“This verdict sends a clear message. An attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate is an attack on our Republic and on the rights of every citizen,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will relentlessly pursue those who try to silence political voices, and no enemy, foreign or domestic, will ever silence the will of the American people.”
US District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off on Routh’s request to represent himself following two hearings in July. The US Supreme Court has held that criminal defendants have a right to represent themselves in court proceedings, as long as they can show a judge they are competent to waive their right to be defended by an attorney. Routh’s former defense attorneys have served as standby counsel since he took over his own defense and have been present during trial the past two weeks.
Recounting what happened at the golf course, a Secret Service agent testified earlier in the trial that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot, the agent said.
Law enforcement obtained help from a witness who testified that he saw a person fleeing the area after hearing gunshots. The witness was then flown in a police helicopter to a nearby interstate where Routh was arrested, and the witness said he confirmed it was the person he had seen.
Just nine weeks earlier, Trump had survived an attempt on his life while campaigning in Butler, Pennsylvania. That gunman had fired eight shots, with one bullet grazing Trump’s ear. The gunman was then fatally shot by a Secret Service counter sniper.
What’s known of Routh’s background
Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous and sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told The Associated Press.
In the early days of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he was arrested in 2002 for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch (25-centimeter) fuse, police said.
In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.
Besides the federal charges, Routh also has pleaded not guilty to state charges of terrorism and attempted murder.

WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has disbanded a committee that provided recommendations for women serving in the military, including on their well-being and treatment, alleging on Tuesday it had pursued a “divisive feminist agenda.”
The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services was created in 1951 and provided advice on “recruitment, retention, employment, integration, well-being, and treatment of women” in the military, according to the committee’s website.
On Tuesday, a Pentagon spokesperson said Hegseth had decided to terminate the committee because it is “focused on advancing a divisive feminist agenda that hurts combat readiness, while Secretary Hegseth has focused on advancing uniform, sex-neutral standards across the Department.”
The Committee is among the oldest advisory panels within the US military and has submitted over 1,100 recommendations to Pentagon chiefs, with about 94 percent either fully or partially adopted, according to the committee’s website.
“Recommendations have historically been instrumental in effecting changes to laws and policies pertaining to military women,” it says.
Hegseth has taken aim at diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the Pentagon since he took office. He previously canceled a program that sought to increase the role of women in national security sectors that was first signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017.
With Hegseth as defense secretary, the Pentagon has ended commemorations of identity month celebrations, like Black History Month, while some books have been removed from the Naval Academy, including Maya Angelou’s memoir.
Hegseth’s moves come as US media organizations also raise free speech concerns after the Pentagon announced on Friday restrictions on media coverage of the US military, requiring news organizations to agree they will not disclose information that the government has not approved for release.