Former US President Donald Trump said on Monday (23) that the Justice Department and the FBI have a “conflict of interest” in investigating the attack he suffered while playing golf at one of his courses in Florida, and asked the Attorney General’s Office of that state to take charge of the investigation.
The Republican candidate for the White House in the November elections accused the Justice Department and the FBI of mismanaging and downplaying the assassination attempt, which occurred on the 15th and was the second that Trump suffered in the current presidential campaign – in the first, which occurred during a rally in Pennsylvania in July, he was grazed in the right ear by a rifle shot.
“The Department of Justice and the FBI have a conflict of interest because they have been obsessed with ‘getting Trump’ for a long time,” the politician said in a statement released by his campaign office and in which he alluded to the “false cases” brought against him by the United States Justice Department.
Trump said “the charges would be much more serious” in Florida, whose governor, Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, has authorized a state investigation.
“If the Department of Justice and the FBI cannot do their job honestly and without bias, and hold the alleged killer accountable to the fullest extent of the law, Governor Ron DeSantis and the State of Florida have already agreed to take the lead in the investigation and prosecution,” the former president said.
Trump said the only two charges filed so far against the suspect in the golf course shooting, Ryan Routh, “are a slap on the wrist.” Prosecutors said new charges against the man, who has been in custody since the incident, have not been ruled out. “Let Florida handle this,” Trump urged.
On Monday, a federal judge granted prosecutors’ request that Routh, 58 and the target of federal charges on two felony firearms charges, not be released on bail.
The US Justice Department filed a petition with the court releasing new information about the case, including a letter written in advance in which Routh acknowledged his failed attempt to kill Trump.
In the handwritten text, which was found inside a box Routh left for someone else months earlier, the suspect confessed: “This was an attempt on Donald Trump’s life, but I am sorry that I failed.”
On the day of the attack, a Secret Service agent discovered Routh armed with a semi-automatic rifle hidden behind some bushes next to Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course, where the politician and businessman was playing with a group of friends – at that time, about 500 meters away, but on the way to where the shooter was.
The agent, who specifically noticed the rifle barrel protruding from the bushes and pointing toward the field, fired in the direction of Routh, who fled the scene without firing a shot.
Routh was arrested by local police officers about 45 minutes later while driving a vehicle north on an interstate highway.
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