Attempted Assassination Thwarted: Secret Service Foils Plot Against Trump

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested after a 12-hour stakeout with a rifle near Trump's golf course. The Secret Service intervened, preventing the second assassination attempt on Trump in two months. Charged with firearm possession despite felony convictions, Routh’s motives include political disdain for Trump.

The man suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump camped outside a golf course with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours, lying in wait for the former president before a Secret Service agent thwarted the potential attack and opened fire, according to court documents filed Monday.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite a prior felony conviction and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The Justice Department did not allege that he fired any shots; however, additional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation continues and prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury.

Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach, kickstarting a criminal case in the final weeks of a presidential race already touched by violence and upheaval. Though no one was injured, the episode marked the second attempt on Trump's life in as many months, raising fresh questions about the security afforded to him during a time of heightened political rhetoric. It prompted Republican allies and even some Democrats to demand to know how a would-be shooter could get so close.

(With inputs from agencies.)