The man charged in connection with an alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Florida this month delivered a box to someone’s home containing a letter that read, “This was an attempted assassination,” a court document said Monday.
The letter came to light in a U.S. district court document requesting that Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, be held in pretrial detention.
Law enforcement was contacted on Sept. 18 by a citizen who said Routh had delivered a box to his residence several months earlier, the case file states. The witness opened the box after learning of the Sept. 15 incident at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Inside the box were ammunition, four telephones and several letters.
A handwritten letter to “The World” said: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you.”
The letter states in part: “He broke off ties with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has fallen apart.”
Routh was arrested on September 15 after a Secret Service agent walking past Trump as he was golfing at Trump International saw “the partially obscured face of a man” in the brush along the fence and the barrel of a gun “pointed directly at him.” The agent fired at Routh, who fled. He was spotted by a witness and arrested shortly afterward on Interstate 95.
Routh has since been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
The FBI searched Routh’s Nissan Xterra and found six cellphones, one of which contained a Google search for how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
Data from two of the cellphones shows Routh traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach on August 14, 2024.
The filing further states that Routh “used his cell phone to connect to cell towers in the vicinity of Trump International and the President’s former residence at Mar-a-Lago on “multiple days and times from August 18, 2024, through September 15, 2024.”
Also found in the vehicle were 12 pairs of gloves, a Hawaiian driver’s license in Routh’s name, his passport and documents. One of the documents was a handwritten list of dates in August, September and October and locations where Trump had appeared or was expected to appear.
Agents also found a notebook with “dozens of pages” of names and phone numbers about Ukraine, discussions about how to join the fight on behalf of Ukraine and notes criticizing the Chinese and Russian governments.
The file shows that police determined that the license plate of the Nissan Xterra was not registered to the vehicle’s registration number and that two additional license plates were found in the car.
A search of the area where Routh had been hiding near the golf course led to the discovery of a rifle with an attached scope and an obliterated serial number, an extended magazine, and a backpack and reusable shopping bag both containing plates “capable of stopping small arms fire.”
On the gun, investigators found a latent fingerprint on a piece of tape attached to the firearm. This fingerprint was a preliminary match to Routh’s.
NBC News saw a large police presence and tape near a row of palm trees and bushes along the golf course on Summit Boulevard, following the suspected assassination attempt last week.
On Thursday, after police reopened the road to the public, NBC News identified an opening in the bushes behind the palm trees that was easily accessible from the public sidewalk. The opening overlooked the golf course and was large enough for someone to occupy.
This is a developing story, check back soon for updates
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
