Attorney Alan Dershowitz expressed doubts Monday whether federal prosecutors will be able to bring attempted murder charges against the man accused of plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump on Sept. 15.
Secret Service agents thwarted an assassination attempt on Trump when they shot Ryan Wesley Routh, who was reportedly hiding near the Trump International Golf Club, two months after Trump was shot in the right ear while speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July. Dershowitz said that while Routh intended to kill Trump, it was not clear that he met all the legal requirements for attempted murder. (Related: 'Take that shot': Democratic C-SPAN call-in reporter praises would-be Trump assassin)
“My experience is that I don't think the assassination attempt charge will hold up,” Dershowitz said. “Let me explain why. This is going to sound very contradictory. This man clearly wanted to kill the president and he took action to kill the president. Now, that's a free criminal law class for you at Harvard.”
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“If he had conspired with anybody else, it would have been a clear case, because all that's required for conspiracy is an agreement to kill the president, or to attempt to kill the president, and he certainly made that agreement and that decision himself,” Dershowitz continued. “The evidence is there, the letters. He wrote letters… saying, 'I wanted to kill the president, I tried to kill the president, I failed, I'll give $150,000 to anyone who succeeds.' So if it was conspiracy, it would have been a clear case, a clear case for conspiracy to assassinate the president. Why isn't it a clear case for attempt?”
Federal prosecutors released Routh's letter in a court filing on Monday.
“The criminal law distinguishes between preparation and attempt. There is no question now that he prepared to kill the president,” Judge Dershowitz said of Routh's actions. “He did everything he could to carry it out. He got guns, ammunition, a scope, he watched. He hid in bushes, and, of course, let's be clear: the first man who tried to kill the president was killed. There was clearly an attempt. He fired a gun. He aimed at the president, he shot him in the ear. This is the clearest case of attempted murder.” (Related: Police release body camera footage of arrest of suspect in attempt to assassinate President Trump)
“He never put the president in the line of fire, and he certainly never pulled the trigger,” Judge Dershowitz said of Routh. “So the question this court must consider, and there is no clear answer to that, is whether being prepared, having a gun in a certain place, going through a fence, but not putting the president in the line of fire and not pulling the trigger is enough to change preparation to attempt, and the law is not clear on that point.”
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