District Judge Aileen M. Cannon sentenced 59-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh to life in federal prison plus an additional seven years on a consecutive gun charge. The sentencing is the end of a legal trial that kicked off on Sept. 15, 2024, when a Secret Service agent discovered Routh hiding in the shrubbery of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach armed with a semi-automatic rifle. Trial and Conviction Routh was convicted by a jury held September 2025 on all five counts, which are as follows:
Attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate. Assaulting a federal officer. Multiple firearms offenses. During the trial, prosecutors have used evidence that Routh had painstakingly planned the attack for months, monitoring the former president’s schedule and whereabouts.
The most vital evidence was a handwritten letter that Routh had handed the witness that said, "This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I am so sorry I failed you." The sentencing hearing Routh was a stoic man at a 90-minute hearing after the man previously tried to represent himself in court. Martin L. Roth, his defense lawyer, argued in favor of a 27-year sentence, arguing that Routh’s age and mental health status should be a factor here.
But Judge Cannon remained unmoved, calling the plot “deliberate and evil.” “American democracy does not function when individual decision-makers take action to erase candidates,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley said during the hearing and, saying the importance of a sentence deterring political violence.
Aftermath Attorney General Pamela Bondi lauded the sentence as a victory for the democratic system, stating that Routh would "never walk free again." It brings a measure of closure to what felt like a turbulent era of political history, confirming the judicial system's zero-tolerance system for political force.
