Ryan Routh’s son is arrested on child porn charges weeks after alleged assassination attempt
The son of the man suspected in the assassination attempt in Florida of former President Donald Trump has been arrested on charges of possessing child sexual abuse images
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The son of the man suspected in the assassination attempt in Florida of former President Donald Trump has been arrested on federal charges of possessing child sexual abuse images.
Oran Routh was arrested this week after authorities searched his Greensboro, North Carolina, home “in connection with an investigation unrelated to child exploitation,” an FBI official said in court papers.
Investigators seized multiple electronic devices and found hundreds of files of child sexual abuse, according the court papers. He faces two charges of possessing and receiving child sexual abuse material.
There was no attorney listed for Oran Routh in court papers. Phone messages for Oran Routh and relatives listed in public records were not immediately returned.
Oran Routh’s father is Ryan Routh, the 58-year-old accused in the assassination attempt of Trump at his Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida on September 15. Ryan Routh has been charged with federal gun offenses but prosecutors have indicated much more serious attempted assassination charges were coming.
The elder Routh was identified by federal officials as the suspect who was allegedly armed with a powerful AK-47-style assault rifle and aimed it through the bushes at Trump’s golf resort in West Palm Beach while the former president was playing on the course. He was about 300 to 500 yards away from Trump at the time. The Hawaii resident has no ties to South Florida and had traveled there solely to kill Trump, authorities argued.
Social media posts suggest he was once a Trump supporter, who voted for the former president in the 2016 election, but had become more critical of Trump in recent years.
After he fled the scene, Ryan Routh allegedly left behind an AK-47 with a scope, two backpacks with ceramic tile inside, and a GoPro video camera, which he allegedly intended to use to film the incident.
Months prior to the assassination attempt, he also left behind a note in a box left outside the home of an unidentified individual detailing his plans.
The note, revealed in a detention proffer filed Monday morning by prosecutors, read: “Dear World, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you.”
The message continued, seeming to predict that he would be unsuccessful in his efforts: “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $ 150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
The September 15 incident happened only two months after Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, where he suffered a wound on his ear. The attack left one spectator dead and others injured. Gunman Thomas Crooks opened fire on the former president with an AR-style rifle from the rooftop of a nearby building. Secret Service agents killed Crooks at the scene.
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