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Ryan Wesley Routh, convicted of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course in September 2024, contacted the Biden-era State Department multiple times seeking assistance to recruit foreign fighters for Ukraine's war effort.
Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Center to Advance Security in America reveal no evidence of substantive responses or follow-up from department officials.
Authorities arrested Routh after a Secret Service agent spotted him with a rifle near Trump on the golf course.
The incident occurred two months after a separate attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a bullet grazed Trump's ear.
Documents show Routh emailed State Department officials in 2023.
In one message dated March 23, 2023, Routh claimed his team was "already supplying background checks from the US military through Representative Barry Moore of Alabama," stating there were "5600 soldiers ready to be transported from Pakistan to a neighboring country of Ukraine and bussed into Ukraine to the front lines to fight."
Rep. Moore's office denied providing any assistance.
"A staffer in our D.C. office took a meeting with Routh after he visited without an appointment and asked to speak with someone," communications director Benjamin Martin said. "The staffer determined our office should have no further contact with Routh and referred him to the State Department for any potential assistance. Congressman Moore has never interacted with Routh, and our office did not respond to any further outreach."
In an October 29, 2023, email to then-Ambassador Bridget Brink and Defense Attaché Garrick Harmon, Routh wrote:
Your staff has spoken with [redacted] at great length and most recently had a meeting where he was asked to provide the execution details of the project as well as accounting of how funds would be allocated and spent and he failed to submit those documents to you. I can be back in Ukraine at a moment's notice and arrange what you need. Because [redacted] did not fulfill his obligation he is ashamed to give me any contact information since he dropped the ball.
Both emails triggered automatic replies.
Released records indicate no direct follow-up from officials.
"Through aggressive FOIA litigation, CASA has uncovered Ryan Routh's attempts to communicate with the Biden State Department," CASA Director James Fitzpatrick said. "Several unanswered questions remain regarding these communications. We still don't know whether the Biden administration responded in any substantive way to Routh and the contents of those communications – the American people deserve answers here and CASA will continue to fight through this litigation to shed as much light on Routh's officials communications as possible."
Prior reports highlighted red flags about Routh.
Another American who encountered him in Ukraine alerted U.S. authorities in June 2022, describing him to a Customs and Border Protection official as a "ticking time bomb," according to The Wall Street Journal.
Routh self-published a 2023 book, "Ukraine's Unwinnable War," containing a passage suggesting Iran was "free to assassinate Trump."
He appeared in a March 2023 New York Times article on Americans volunteering in Ukraine.Despite a 2022 DHS initiative to monitor returning Americans who might become violent, Routh faced no apparent investigation, Politico reported.
Ukrainian units denied connections to Routh after his arrest.
A jury convicted Routh on all charges, including attempted assassination.
He represented himself at trial, facing frequent judicial interruptions for off-topic remarks.
Routh requested imprisonment in a facility allowing assisted suicide and suggested a prisoner swap in filings.
"Do not let me take my own life and it have zero benefit for humanity or mankind," he wrote in an October 29 filing.
His sentencing, recently delayed after he requested counsel, now faces rescheduling to early 2026.
While the FBI meticulously tracked grandmothers who peacefully protested at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021—resulting in hundreds of prosecutions and years-long sentences—the radicalized activists hellbent on killing Trump apparently slipped through the cracks, ignored by the very agencies sworn to protect us all.
