US prosecutors push for life sentence for man convicted in Trump assassination plot

By Gizem Nisa Demir

ISTANBUL (AA) - US federal prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Ryan Routh, convicted of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump during a 2024 incident at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

In a sentencing memo filed on Friday ahead of his February hearing, prosecutors said Routh, 59, “plotted painstakingly” for months and renewed his resolve after the failed July 2024 assassination attempt by Thomas Crooks in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Routh’s criminal acts at the golf course were not impromptu,” the memo said, adding that he sought to “accomplish what Crooks failed to complete.”

Routh was found guilty in September after a Secret Service agent spotted him aiming a loaded SKS rifle from a sniper’s hide near the sixth hole before any shots were fired.

Prosecutors said he has shown no remorse, arguing that “nothing about Routh mitigates the need for a sentence of life in prison.”