FBI: Son of suspect in Trump assassination attempt arrested on child sexual abuse images charges
WASHINGTON — The son of the man suspected in the assassination attempt in Florida against former President Trump has been arrested on federal charges of possessing child sexual abuse images.
Oran Alexander Routh was arrested this week after authorities searched his Greensboro, N.C., home “in connection with an investigation unrelated to child exploitation,†and found hundreds of files depicting child sexual abuse, an FBI agent said in court papers.
Investigators who seized multiple electronic devices found videos sent to Oran Routh in July as well as chats from a messaging application commonly used by people who share child sexual abuse material, the FBI agent said.
He faces two charges of possessing and receiving child sexual abuse material and is expected to appear later Tuesday in federal court in North Carolina.
The FBI says former President Trump has agreed to be interviewed as part of its investigation into his attempted assassination in Pennsylvania.
There was no attorney listed for Oran Routh in court papers. Phone messages left for relatives of Oran Routh were not immediately returned.
Oran Routh’s father, Ryan Wesley Routh, has been charged with federal gun offenses in connection to the attempted assassination at Trump’s Florida golf course earlier this month. Prosecutors have indicated much more serious attempted assassination charges are coming.
Oran Routh’s arrest was first reported Tuesday by ABC News.
A federal judge on Monday agreed with Justice Department prosecutors that Ryan Routh should remain locked up while he awaits trial in his case.
Prosecutors have said Ryan Routh left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear. The note describing Routh’s plans was placed in a box that he dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after Ryan Routh’s arrest, prosecutors said.
Ryan Routh is currently charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina, and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
The Secret Service said that it was investigating and that the incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. “The former president is safe,†the agency said.
But a prosecutor said in court Monday that they would pursue additional charges before a grand jury, accusing him of having tried to “assassinate a major political candidate†— charges that would warrant life in prison in the event of a conviction.
It is common for prosecutors to file more easily provable charges as an immediate placeholder before adding more significant allegations as the case proceeds.
Ryan Routh was arrested Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man’s face and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at the former president.
The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county, leaving behind a loaded rifle, digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that was hanging from a chain-link fence.
Richer writes for the Associated Press.
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