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Below are live updates from inside the federal trial of Ryan Routh, accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump in September 2024 at his West Palm Beach golf club. The proceedings are closed to electronics and not televised, with Fox News reporters providing firsthand accounts from the Federal Courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Secret Service agent describes ‘textbook ambush’ — 11:52 a.m. ET
The government’s first witness, Special Agent Robert Fercano, testified Thursday that Ryan Routh had aimed a rifle directly at his face while lying in wait at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15, 2024.
Fercano, now with Homeland Security Investigations – but at the time a Secret Service agent – said he hd been scanning the sixth hole while Trump played the fifth when he noticed “several abnormalities on the fence line.”
“There appeared to be a face, a barrel of a weapon and what I perceived to be plates, like Humvee plates like I saw in the Marine Corps,” he told Department of Justice prosecutor Maria Medetis Long.
Fercano said he tried to make contact: “Hey, sir,” he called out. Moments later, he noticed the rifle barrel starting to move and heard “what sounded like a groan,” and saw the man smile, he testified.
At first, Fercano said, he thought it could be a homeless person. But Fercano claimed the barrel had followed his movement, and he had seen plates hanging from the fence that looked like makeshift bulletproof shielding.
“This appeared to be a textbook ambush scenario,” Fercano testified, saying he had drawn his weapon and fired as he walked backward.
Jurors also heard Fercano’s frantic radio calls:
“Mogul on 5 green,” at 1:24 p.m., alerting colleagues Trump was on the fifth hole.
Just 11 seconds later: “Shots fired, shots fired, shots fired.”
“Be advised it looked like an AK-47-style rifle pointed through the fence.”
Prosecutors then presented the Chinese-made SKS rifle they say Routh had used. Wearing black gloves, Fercano demonstrated for the jury how one to two inches of the barrel had protruded through the fence that day.
RYAN ROUTH TRIAL OPENS WITH BIZARRE JURY QUESTIONS AND WITNESS DRAMA
Trump assassination suspect Ryan Routh was arrested for alleged attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, possession of a firearm and ammunition and possession of a…
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