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DOJ Publishes Letter Placing $150K Bounty on Trump’s Head

September 24, 2024

Following the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, the feds have published a letter from one of the would-be-assassins placing a bounty on Trump’s head. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published the first page of a handwritten letter allegedly penned by Ryan Routh, who has been arrested in connection with the September 15 assassination attempt against Trump on a West Palm golf course in Florida.

The published portion of the letter, addressed to the “World,” begins, “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.” The letter continues, “It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.” It also states, “Everyone across the globe from the youngest to the oldest know that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a US [sic] president. U.S. presidents must at bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity.”

According to court documents, Routh entrusted a box to an unnamed witness “several months prior” to last week’s assassination attempt. Following Routh’s arrest, the witness opened the box, which contained ammunition, four phones, a metal pipe, and various unspecified tools and building materials, as well as several letters, including the one published by the DOJ. Thus far, Routh is facing two gun-related charges following the assassination attempt.

Donald Trump, Jr. criticized the DOJ for publishing the letter’s promise of a bounty, particularly given the agency’s penchant for hiding manifestoes written by shooters. “Why is Kamala’s DOJ publicizing Ryan Wesley Routh putting a bounty on my dad’s head???” the former president’s son asked. “DOJ releasing this in a week but not the trans killer manifesto for months isn’t signaling anything.”

“For the life of me, I do not understand why the Kamala-Biden DOJ is publicly releasing a letter from Ryan Wesley Routh announcing a $150,000 bounty on my dad’s head,” Trump, Jr. told media. “They’re putting his life even more at risk with this reckless decision.”

Former Attorney General William Barr, who served in Trump’s first administration, said he was “dumbfounded” that the DOJ released the letter without redactions. “The letter calls on people to ‘finish the job’ of killing President Trump, attempts to rouse people in incendiary terms to do so, and offers $150,000 to anyone who succeeds. There was no apparent justification for releasing this information at this stage,” Barr said.

He continued, “Even if DOJ thought it important to provide the letter to the court, it could have redacted inflammatory material or arranged to have the letter submitted under seal. It was rash to put out this letter in the midst of an election during which two attempts on the life of President Trump had been made. It served no purpose other than to risk inciting further violence.”

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said, “I find it so inappropriate that that would have been released.” She added, “I just find it incredible that the DOJ is handling it in this manner and that there are not, at this point, on this man.” Mike Crispi, a Trump-appointed delegate to the Republican National Convention, noted, “Ryan Routh ran a fake business that nobody can prove has made a dime in over a decade. Yet he’s been able to fly all around the world, own a pet horse and offer $150,000 to whoever takes out Trump. Who’s funding Routh? We must get answers.”

Posting a photo of the letter, conservative activist and lawyer Rogan O’Handley jokingly entitled it, “How to put out a $150,000 bounty on Trump without officially putting out a bounty on Trump By Kamala’s DOJ.” Robby Starbuck, a conservative commentator and documentary filmmaker, observed, “The same people who refused to show us the Covenant trans killer manifesto just released a bounty on President Trump for $150,000 by his would be assassin. Absolutely insane.” Author and radio host Jesse Kelly commented, “People are shocked the DOJ publicized a $150,000 bounty on Trump’s because people still haven’t accepted that we already live under an evil, murderous government that will simply kill anyone who threatens its criminal enterprise. Corrupt regimes murder their enemies.”

Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis (R) assigned state authorities to launch their own investigation into the second assassination attempt, noting that the federal investigation into the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania had not yet yielded results. “The people deserve the truth about the would-be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP nominee,” DeSantis declared.

By the end of the week, DeSantis confirmed that federal investigators were not cooperating with Florida’s investigators. “Our investigators were rebuffed just going to the fence line outside of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. …They don’t want the state of Florida to be involved in this,” the governor announced on Friday. He added that he is “concerned” that Americans will not be told the truth about the assassination attempts against Trump.

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.



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