Releasing Trump Suspect’s Letter Could Be ‘Call to Arms’: Legal Analyst

The release of a letter that prosecutors allege was written by Ryan Wesley Routh concerning an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump could be a “call to arms” for mentally unstable people, according to CNN legal analyst Elie Honig.

Routh, 58, was arrested this month after Secret Service agents spotted him poking a rifle through a fence at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while the former president was golfing nearby but out of sight, authorities said. The FBI later added that the incident “appears to be an assassination attempt.”

On Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) as part of a legal brief released a letter purportedly from Routh detailing his alleged plan to assassinate Trump.

Routh predicted he would fail to kill the ex-president in the letter, while he offered a hefty reward to anyone who could “complete the job,” according to the Justice Department, adding that Routh wrote: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. 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 letter was allegedly turned in to federal authorities by an unidentified person who said that they received the missive months before the suspected assassination attempt.

Honig, former assistant US attorney, said during a CNN appearance on Monday night that he agreed with Trump-appointed former Attorney General Bill Barr, who told Fox News earlier in the day that releasing the letter risked “inciting further violence.”

“I don’t often agree with Bill Barr, but I do here,” Honig said. “What the feds could have done in their brief… is just say, ‘We recovered a letter from him, from his possessions, where he says this was an attempted assassination.’ That’s it. Instead, they published the whole letter.”

“To somebody who’s unbalanced, who’s dangerous, (they) could see that as some kind of call to arms,” ​​he continued. “So, I disagree with that tactic by the feds. I think it’s counterproductive.”

Newsweek reached out for comment to the DOJ via online press contact form on Monday night.

Routh appeared in court for a detention hearing earlier on Monday, when US Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe ordered that he be held indefinitely without bond as the government is expected to convene a grand jury to indict him on an attempted assassination charge.

At the moment, Routh has been charged only with illegally owning a firearm as a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has launched his own state investigation, while claiming that federal authorities are “not being cooperative.”

Trump, whose ear was grazed by a bullet during a July assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, on Monday accused the DOJ and FBI of “mishandling” the federal investigation and demanded that Florida “handle” the case instead.

“The Kamala Harris/Joe Biden Department of Justice and FBI are mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July,” Trump said in a statement. “The charges brought against the maniac assassin are a slap on the wrist.”

“Governor Ron DeSantis and the State of Florida have already agreed to take the lead on the investigation and prosecution,” he added. “LET FLORIDA TRADE THE CASE!”