Trump suspect Ryan Routh stalked golf course from sniper’s nest for 12 HOURS and used rifle that could have been purchased overseas

Trump stalker Ryan Routh may have been lying in wait for the former president for more than 11 hours at the Florida golf course where Donald Trump was playing.

And the high-powered rifle Routh was carrying may have been purchased overseas.

The new details emerged in a document filed Monday charging Routh, 58, with weapons offenses in connection with the incident. Sunday’s incident is the second such attempt on Trump’s life in the past three months.

Officials found that the loaded 7.62×39 SKS rifle had a serial number that was “illegible and not readable to the naked eye.”

The agent who wrote the complaint said such guns are not manufactured in Florida and that the gun was likely “out of state or in commerce.”

Meanwhile, cellphone location data obtained by the FBI indicates Routh was “near tree line” at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach from just before 2 a.m. Sunday until approximately 1:30 p.m.

That was about when a Secret Service agent checking the course for Trump spotted a gun barrel sticking out of a nearby fence and fired at Routh. Trump was quickly evacuated.

The details suggest a degree of forward planning by Routh. Moreover, the fact that he spent about 12 hours on the golf course without being discovered has raised questions about the Secret Service’s protective procedures.

Officials said Routh was on the public side of the Trump golf course fence when the officer saw the barrel of the gun.

Police are still investigating all details, including where the suspect got the AK-style rifle, what his movements were before the incident and whether anyone else was involved.

It is unclear where Routh would have parked and waited for the former president, who regularly plays golf at his West Palm Beach club when he is at his nearby Mar-a-Lago home.

Local police have tightened security around the golf club, including closing the road to all but local traffic.

When the agent spotted the gun on Sunday, Trump was on the fifth hole of his Palm Beach golf club. The agent was on the sixth hole, doing a visual sweep for the former president, when he spotted the barrel of the gun.

Routh was less than 500 yards from Trump when he was captured.

Acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe said Monday that Routh was unable to fire a single shot and that Trump was never in his “field of vision.”

“As former President Trump drove down the fifth fairway, across the course and out of sight of the sixth green, the officer, who was visually scanning the area of ​​the sixth green, saw the suspect armed with what he believed to be a rifle and immediately discharged his firearm,” he noted.

The Secret Service was criticized for failing to maintain sufficient distance around Trump at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate the former president.

But, Rowe noted, the agency had a security plan in place for Trump’s golf game, which he said was not planned.

“We have a security plan in place and that plan has worked,” he said at a news conference on Monday.

In the area near the tree line where Routh fled, officers found a digital camera, two bags, a loaded 7.62×39 SKS rifle with a scope and a black plastic bag containing food.

On Sunday, after the Secret Service fired shots and Routh fled, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office pulled over a vehicle and apprehended Routh at 2:14 p.m. Officers said the license plate of the Nissan he was in was registered to a white 2012 Ford truck that had been reported stolen.

Ryan was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number.

Researchers are trying to recover the serial number so they can trace its origin.

He did not appear to fire the weapon, police noted. Apparently, the only shots fired were from the Secret Service. Even if Routh did not fire the weapon, he could still be charged with attempted murder.

“We are investigating this case as a suspected attempted assassination of former President Trump,” FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Veltri of the Miami office said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

The Secret Service later discovered a rifle, a backpack and a GoPro video camera attached to the fence near where Routh was seen.

Routh appeared for a brief hearing Monday morning in federal court in West Palm Beach, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit.

U.S. District Judge Ryon McCabe has ordered Routh held without bail until his pretrial detention hearing on September 23.

Routh has a lengthy criminal record in North Carolina, including a conviction for possession of a weapon of mass destruction and multiple charges of possession of stolen property.

He also has ties to Hawaii, where he worked in construction and led a group of people who built housing for the homeless.

He was deeply involved in efforts to recruit soldiers to fight against Russia in Ukraine. He traveled to Ukraine in 2022 and later wrote a book, ‘Ukraine’s Unwinnable War.’

AP video footage shows Routh holding a small demonstration on Independence Square in Kiev in April 2022, two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of the country.

In the self-published book, available on Amazon, Routh strongly criticized Trump and even encouraged Iran to assassinate him.

“You are free to kill Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran.

Routh, who was active on social media, said he voted for Trump in 2016, but criticized him in a June 2020 post.

“I and the world hoped that President Trump would be different and better than the candidate,” he wrote. “I will be happy if you [sic] away.’

He also did not appear to be a fan of President Joe Biden.

“Sleepy Joe stands for nothing, no plans, no ideas,” he wrote in a March 5, 2020, X-post.