Fort Pierce, Florida (Reuters)-The man accused of trying to kill President Donald Trump last year in his Florida golf course began his trial on Monday and, in the face of the perspective of life imprisonment, chose to dismiss his legal team and defend himself in court.
Ryan Ruth, 59, faces five accusations, including attempted murder of an important presidential candidate. Prosecutors claimed that he hid with a rifle near the sixth Green of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, with the intention of shooting Trump during a golf match in recent weeks of the 2024 campaign.
A US secret service agent spotted Ruth hidden in the tree row and opened fire, causing Ruth to run away before shooting a shot, according to court documents.
Free tool
XP Simulator
Learn in 1 minute how much your money can yield
Ruth declared himself innocent of all charges.
The trial at the Fort Pierce Federal Court, Florida, who began with the jury selection on Monday, will probably provide a detailed account of what prosecutors claim to have been the second attack on Trump’s life over a two-month period. The shooter of the first attack, who injured Trump on the ear, was killed at the scene.
It is also likely to test as far as Reth, a difficult -to -date roof contractor with a quixotic defense of vulnerable democracies, including Ukraine and Taiwan, can go to turn the process into a forum for their own opinions.
Continues after advertising
The US district judge Aileen Cannon, who supervises the case, rejected on Monday the questions proposed by Routh to the possible jurors of the case, classifying them as “very wrong” and irrelevant to the process. The questions, Cannon said, included questions about Pro-Palestinian student activism and Trump’s support for Greenland’s taken by the US.
Since dismissing his team of public defenders in July, Routh has used court documents to propose a “intimidation session” with Trump, suggested the possibility of exchanging for a prisoner maintained by China or Iran and tried unsuccessfully to expert testimony about his own “narcissism.”
Reth, who has no formal legal formation, will make the statements of opening and closing, will question witnesses and present evidence on his behalf. Your two former lawn will act as “reserve lawyers”, ready to advise, if requested.
Continues after advertising
“It was ridiculous, from the beginning, to consider any stranger, who knows nothing about me, to talk for me,” Reth wrote in a letter to Cannon. “I better walk alone.”
Named by Trump
Cannon, appointed by Trump in his first term, also supervised the criminal case that he accused Trump of having illegal access to confidential documents. She attracted wide attention and criticism from many jurists for her decision last year to file the case based on the finding that the main prosecutor had been illegally appointed.
Continues after advertising
Criminal defendants have the legal law of self-representation, but Reth’s maneuver inserts an unpredictable element in the trial and increases legal risks, legal experts said.
“If his sole purpose is to be acquitted, his chances are likely to decrease,” said Erica Hashimoto, professor of law at the University of Georgetown, who studied self -representation in criminal cases. “If he has something else that is trying to do judgment, then representing himself can be the only way to achieve this.”
Ruth sought to show the jury his previous writings defending the persecuted populations and the “ordinary man,” which he cited as evidence of a non -violent nature.
Continues after advertising
Routh wrote in a 2023 self -published book that he voted for Trump in 2016, but has been disliked him since, considering the attack of January 6, 2021 to the US capitol as part of a global attack on democracy.
Ruth will face strict limits in his ability to present political or ideological arguments in the trial. The accusation and defense previously agreed that he could not argue that his alleged actions were somehow justified or necessary.
Cannon has already decided that some of his previous writings cannot be presented as proof. She warned Reth, in a recent decision, against the use of witness testimonials as a “calculated chaos tool.”
Continues after advertising
Prosecutors plan to show the jury at least one letter allegedly written by Routh. The letter, addressed to “dear world” and allegedly included in a box left with a well -known months before the incident, begins: “This was an attempted murder against Donald Trump, but I’m sorry to have failed you.”
Prosecutors will have to show that Routh intended to kill Trump and took substantial measures for it.
Prosecutors claim that Routh, on September 15, 2024, set up a “gunman nest” overlooking the sixth golf field hole with a SKS style rifle loaded with 20 ammunition cartridges and protective ballistic signs.
By the time the secret service spotted Ruth, Trump was a few hundred meters away, near the fifth field hole, the prosecutors said. He would have reached the sixth Green in about 15 minutes.
