Trump Demands That DeSantis Handle Assassination Attempt Prosecution In Lie-Filled Screed

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) be allowed to take over the prosecution of the man alleged to be his second would-be assassin, claiming that the Department of Justice and the FBI are going easy on the suspect.

“OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT AND DISCREDITED,” the coup-attempting former president said in a campaign statement that repeated a number of his usual lies about the investigations and prosecutions into his own actions in recent years. “LET FLORIDA HANDLE THE CASE!”

The DOJ and the FBI did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s queries about Trump’s statement.

Trump claimed that both agencies are part of a conspiracy by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now the Democratic presidential nominee, and state-level prosecutors and attorneys general to imprison Trump solely because of his candidacy to regain the presidency. Trump claims that for this reason, prosecutors are “downplaying” the charges against Ryan Routh.

“The charges brought against the maniac assassin are a slap on the wrist,” Trump wrote, referring to the weapons charges prosecutors filed against Routh to keep him in custody as they continue their investigation.

At a court hearing Monday, though, Department of Justice prosecutor Mark Dispoto told the federal judge that he intends to bring a more serious attempted assassination charge against Routh to a grand jury in the coming weeks. Based on that, the judge ordered Routh to remain in jail without bail.

If Routh, 58, is charged and convicted for that offense, he could receive life in prison.

Trump’s new 418-word tirade, which he also posted on his Truth Social platform, goes through his familiar litany of complaints about the investigations against him, from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into his campaign’s cooperation with Russian spies to win the 2016 election, to his 2020 impeachment for trying to extort Ukraine into helping him win reelection that year, to the federal and Georgia prosecutions based on his Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt.

He also tied in Hunter Biden’s laptop and the FBI search of Trump’s South Florida country club to find secret documents he took with him from the White House upon leaving office.

“The DOJ and FBI have a Conflict of Interest since they have been obsessed with ‘Getting Trump’ for so long,” Trump wrote. “It’s very difficult to trust the Biden/Harris DOJ/FBI to investigate the assassination attempts, due to Election Interference and the FAKE CASES brought against me, including their control over local D.A.s and A.G.s.”

DeSantis last week announced that a statewide prosecutor would also investigate Routh’s apparent attempt to shoot Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course on Sept. 15. A Secret Service agent walking the course one hole ahead of Trump noticed a rifle barrel protruding through the tree line at the edge of the course and opened fire. Routh fled and was arrested soon after.

It is unclear why Trump believes that Florida authorities would be able to make a stronger case than the DOJ and the FBI. Florida’s police agencies, including its premier statewide Florida Department of Law Enforcement, routinely ask the FBI for help with evidence in complicated cases.

The Florida shooting attempt was the second against Trump in two months. Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet from another would-be assassin’s AR-15 at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13. A rallygoer was shot and killed, and two others were seriously wounded. The gunman was shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.

Trump, who would be able to dismiss the federal charges against him should he win back the White House, is also himself a convicted criminal. A New York jury found him guilty on 34 felony counts based on his $130,000 hush money payment to a porn actor ahead of the 2016 election. He could receive as much as four years in prison when he is sentenced in late November. Dozens of pending felony charges from the other cases could bring Trump decades in prison, as well.