The legal proceedings concerning the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump have concluded. Ryan Routh has been apprehended, formally charged, tried, and subsequently convicted of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump in September 2024. He is expected to spend his remaining life in incarceration, plus an additional 84 months, as reported by The Palm Beach Post:
BREAKING: Attempted Trump assassin Ryan Routh sentenced to life in prison + 84 months by Judge Aileen Cannon, per our @FoxNews team in court.
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 4, 2026
JUST IN - Ryan Routh, would-be Trump assassin, sentenced to life in prison — AP pic.twitter.com/NrBfSOqJs0
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) February 4, 2026
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sentenced Donald Trump's would-be assassin to life in prison on Feb. 4, rejecting his bid for leniency.
Ryan Routh's attorney had suggested a 27-year sentence would be punishment enough for the failed plot to kill Trump, a crime he said hurt no one. Federal prosecutors disagreed, noting that of the many legitimate ways to oppose a presidential candidate, murder is not one of them.
Cannon's decision comes four months after jurors convicted Routh of attempted assassination, assaulting a federal officer and several firearms offenses. The first charge alone carried a potential life sentence.
[…]
What prosecutors described as a narrowly averted assassination attempt, Routh suggested was nothing more than peaceful protest. Routh told jurors from the outset of his trial that he was incapable of pulling the trigger and had been guilty only of "caring too much."
[…]
After his conviction, Routh filed a motion asking Cannon to sentence him to prison "in a state that has assisted suicide, since I am a constant failure."
His motion veered between expressions of hopelessness and elaborate proposals for prisoner exchanges. Routh suggested trading himself for journalists imprisoned in China, protesters held in Iran or prisoners of war suffering in Russia — requests his new attorney, Martin L. Roth, did not revive during his Feb. 4 sentencing hearing.
Routh's letter also included an apology for previously comparing Trump to baboons; not because the comparison was inappropriate, but because it was unfair to baboons.
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What a loon. Lock him up and throw away the key.
Routh positioned himself at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach for a duration exceeding ten hours. He was equipped with a scoped rifle and a GoPro camera and was within a distance of 300 to 500 yards from Mr. Trump prior to a Secret Service agent noticing the barrel of his firearm protruding from the shrubbery.
His past is also quite tumultuous, with a nurse coming forward after his capture to reveal that she had warned US authorities about Routh, whom she met during humanitarian work in Ukraine. She was cautious during her Fox media appearance days after his arrest, but it was evident that Routh unsettled her, making comments that were highly disturbing. She even left the country earlier than planned because she didn’t feel safe around him. Routh was also interviewed by Semafor and other outlets before the chaos he tried to incite in September 2024. He claimed to be a military expert on Ukraine, and how he managed to deceive the country's political and military systems adds another bizarre twist to this story.
NEW: Nurse who met would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh while in Ukraine says she realized he was a threat and reported him the Feds
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 18, 2024
"He wanted to kill most world leaders."
pic.twitter.com/wsZDexVPpe
Last September, after he was found guilty on all counts of the charges stemming from this attempted assassination of Mr. Trump, Routh tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen. He was handcuffed and shackled as his sentence was read to him.
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