PALM BEACH: The gunman accused of plotting to kill Donald Trump at his Florida golf course was charged Tuesday with three additional counts, including attempted murder of a leading presidential candidate, the U.S. Justice Department announced.
Ryan Routh, 58, was arrested on September 15 after Secret Service agents spotted him with a gun near the field where Trump was playing.
He has already been charged with two firearms offences in connection with the incident.
The new indictment was returned Tuesday night by a grand jury, a panel of citizens with investigative powers, in Miami, Florida, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Court documents indicated the case was randomly assigned to federal Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who halted criminal proceedings against the former president over his retention of top-secret documents in his private residence.
In addition to attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, the new charges also include possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer, who court documents show was a Secret Service agent.
A Secret Service agent spotted Routh's gun sticking out of bushes while scouting the grounds during Trump's golf game. The agent fired at the suspect, who fled but was later arrested.
A federal judge ruled Monday that Routh should remain in custody.
FBI analysis of Routh's phone showed he had been in Florida since Aug. 18, and his devices were located multiple times between then and Sept. 15 near Trump's golf course and his Mar-a-Lago residence, prosecutors said.
Before being discovered by the Secret Service agent, he had spent nearly 12 hours in the vicinity of the club, according to location data on his phone, prosecutors said.
This is the second assassination attempt on Trump this summer. The first took place on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman opened fire, killing one person and wounding Trump in the ear.
The candidate was uninjured and the gunman died at the scene and is not believed to be connected to Routh's alleged plot.
Trump had previously accused the Justice Department and the FBI of “mishandling and downplaying” the golf course incident.
“The charges brought against the maniac killer are a slap in the face,” Trump said in a written statement released this week that may have been prepared before it emerged there was a possibility of additional felony charges on top of the earlier weapons charges.
In a statement riddled with falsehoods and baseless conspiracy theories about his various criminal cases, Trump called for the Routh case to be handed over to state authorities in Florida, led by far-right Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis said earlier this month that the state will conduct its own investigation and seek more severe charges.
