Florida’s prosecutors will pursue a case against the suspect in the apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump over the “most serious straightforward offense, which is attempted murder,” Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday.
DeSantis said Tuesday he signed an executive order assigning the case to the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution, which prosecutes crimes that involve two or more judicial circuits in the state.
The state of Florida has jurisdiction to pursue charges in a way the federal government cannot, DeSantis said during a news conference in West Palm Beach. The Office of Statewide Prosecution has taken the case because the suspect was spotted at Trump’s golf course near West Palm Beach in Palm Beach County and later apprehended in Martin County. DeSantis noted that it’s possible there could be a Broward County connection, too. Asked what that connection may be, he said it had something to do with the suspect’s license plate.
State Attorney General Ashley Moody said it’s “unprecedented” for so much focus to be on presidential nominee, especially focus defined by “rhetoric and threats.”
“Something went terribly wrong when someone was allowed to remain on the periphery of a golf course in a tree line for 12 hours and get within 500 feet of the president of the United States,” she said during the Tuesday newsconference.
For the second time in two days, DeSantis expressed doubts about the federal government’s ability to fairly and objectively investigate the apparent assassination attempt. Similar to remarks he made on Monday, DeSantis said Tuesday he doesn’t believe it would be “in the best interest of the state or the nation to have the same federal agencies seeking to prosecute Donald Trump” also leading the investigation into Trump’s second assassination attempt.
“In addition to holding the suspect accountable, the public deserves to know the truth about how this assassination came to be,” he said.
Tuesday’s news conference was held two days after law enforcement officers arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, 58. Police, FBI and Secret Service reports indicate a Secret Service agent assigned to the former president’s security detail saw a firearm through shrubbery along public access near the golf course on Summit Boulevard where Trump was playing on Sunday. The agent opened fire, which the FBI and Secret Service officials said prompted Routh to speed away before being captured on Interstate 95 in Martin County.
The suspect “did not fire or get off any shots at our agent,” Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said Monday. “With reports of gunfire, the former president’s close protection detail immediately evacuated the president to a safe location.”
Bodycam footage posted Monday on Facebook by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office showed Routh’s arrest on Sunday. The video shows him walking backward with his hands over his head on the side of a road before being handcuffed and led away by law enforcement.
Routh appeared on Monday morning before Judge Ryon M. McCabe in federal court at the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in West Palm Beach. He currently faces two charges: One count of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, and the other that the serial number on the gun was “obliterated,” or unreadable, in violation of federal law.
But an executive order issued by DeSantis on Tuesday says “the State of Florida has the most straight forward jurisdiction to prosecute the most straight forward, serious offense of attempted murder.”
“This is an offense that should merit a life in prison,” DeSantis said Tuesday. “And if we’re not going to go to the fullest extent of the law, you’re lowering the threshold, which someone in the future may try to do something like this.
“It’s really important for the people of Florida but also for our country that we pursue the most serious charges that are on the books to hold this guy accountable, and to say you’re going to do a couple of gun charges that is not going to be sufficient to do it.”
But there are also limits to what local law enforcement can do independent of the federal agencies in charge. It’s unclear how the state and federal government will work together now that DeSantis has planned a separate investigation.
Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg had originally indicated plans to file separate charges in the case. Later, he told CBS12 that his office will not have anything to do with the case, adding, “it’s all feds.”
Those limitations also extend to what local law enforcement can do. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has said he will continue to provide his deputies to the Secret Service, who ultimately calls the shots.
During Tuesday’s news conference, Bradshaw said when Trump “travels or if he goes to play golf again, things will probably change. … I will make sure that my resources are dedicated to the Secret Service to keep him safe.”
As for Routh: “We need to prosecute this guy to the fullest extent,” Bradshaw said.
Martin County Sheriff Bill Snyder compared the relationship between the Secret Service and local law enforcement to a football team.
“Everybody has their place, but it’s the quarterback to calls the signal,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “The Secret Service, they have to call the signal. If they want more local law enforcement, they’ll ask Sheriff Bradshaw. And you heard him today, he’s committed. Whatever you ask for.”
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