US prosecutors seek life sentence for man who tried to assassinate Trump in Florida

Federal prosecutors will ask that a man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 be sentenced to life in prison at a hearing on Wednesday.Ryan Routh is scheduled to appear before US district judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce.Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the then Republican presidential candidate played golf on 15 September 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.At Routh’s trial, a Secret Service agent helping protect Trump on the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and run away without firing a shot.Cannon’s courtroom erupted into chaos in September shortly after jurors found Routh guilty on all counts, including attempting to kill a presidential candidate and several firearm-related charges. Routh tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen, and officers quickly dragged him out.Routh’s sentencing had initially been scheduled for December, but Cannon agreed to move the date back after Routh decided to use an attorney during the sentencing phase instead of representing himself as he did for most of the trial.Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum filed last month that Routh has yet to accept any responsibility for his actions and that he should spend the rest of his life in prison, in accordance with federal sentencing guidelines.“Routh remains unrepentant for his crimes, never apologized for the lives he put at risk, and his life demonstrates near-total disregard for law,” the memo said.Routh’s new defense attorney, Martin L Roth, is asking the judge for a variance from sentencing guidelines: 20 years in prison on top of a seven-year, mandatory sentence for one of the gun convictions.“The defendant is two weeks short of being sixty years old,” Roth wrote in a filing. “A just punishment would provide a sentence long enough to impose sufficient but not excessive punishment, and to allow defendant to experience freedom again as opposed to dying in prison.”Routh’s attempt on Trump’s life came just nine weeks after the then presidential candidate narrowly survived an attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. There, Thomas Crooks, 20, fired eight shots at Trump, with one bullet grazing his ear, Crooks was then shot dead by Secret Service counter-snipers.The Associated Press contributed reporting