By Andrew Goudsward
FORT PIERCE, Florida (Reuters) -The criminal trial of the man accused of trying to assassinate U.S. President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course begins with opening statements on Thursday, with defendant Ryan Routh representing himself in a proceeding set to showcase the increasing prominence of political violence in the U.S.
Routh, 59, has pleaded not guilty to five federal charges, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The trial is set to start the day after right-wing activist and influential Trump ally Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University, marking the latest instance of political violence in the U.S. Trump himself faced two assassination attempts during his 2024 presidential campaign that sent him back to the White House.
U.S. prosecutors allege Routh hid with a rifle near the sixth hole green at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach intending to kill Trump as he golfed on the course on September 15, 2024.
A Secret Service agent spotted Routh and the rifle poking through a fence and opened fire, prompting Routh to flee without firing a shot, according to court documents. He was arrested the same afternoon after being stopped by police on a Florida highway.
The incident came about two months after Trump was wounded in the ear following a shooting at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last July. That gunman was shot dead at the scene.
Routh, who had lived an erratic life as a struggling roofing contractor, had advocated for democracy in Taiwan and Ukraine, and was interviewed in 2023 about a quixotic plan to deploy Afghan refugees to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion.
In July, he told U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that he did not trust a “random stranger” to speak for him and would defend himself. His two former public defenders are now serving as standby lawyers to assist with logistical issues.
A jury of seven women and five men will begin hearing evidence in the case following opening statements.
Reuters investigations have found that the United States is in the midst of the most sustained increase in political violence since the 1970s, a trend that began during Trump’s first presidential run in 2016.
Other high-profile episodes include the shooting of Steve Scalise, a senior Republican member of the House of Representatives, at a congressional baseball game in 2017 and the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
Democrats have also been recent targets of political violence. In April, an arsonist broke into Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence and set it on fire while the family was inside. In June, a gunman posing as a police officer in Minnesota murdered state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot state Senator John Hoffman and his wife.
Trump during his second term has sought to elevate crime and violence as issues, particularly in major U.S. cities. He has deployed National Guard troops and federal agents to Washington D.C. and threatened to expand the crackdown to other mostly Democratic-controlled cities despite statistics showing a general decrease in violent crime over the last few years.
The Routh trial begins as Trump puts his stamp on the U.S. Justice Department, which is prosecuting the case, firing officials deemed insufficiently loyal.
In a twist of fate, it will be held at the same courthouse and in front of the same judge where Trump faced criminal charges accusing him of illegally holding onto classified documents following his first term. Cannon, whom Trump nominated in 2020, dismissed that case before it reached a trial.
Cannon showed flashes of frustration with Routh during three days of jury selection and rejected his proposed questions to prospective jurors, which touched on topics including pro-Palestinian student activism and the war in Ukraine, which she called irrelevant.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Andy Sullivan and Bill Berkrot)
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