MIAMI — A North Carolina man fired his court-appointed lawyer and now plans to defend himself against high-stakes charges that he attempted to kill Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 59, whose South Florida federal trial starts Monday, has already shown himself to be a bit out there.

In 2023, Routh described his prior support of Trump as a “terrible mistake” in his self-published book — “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War” — describing the former president as an “idiot” while appealing to Iran to assassinate Trump for abandoning the U.S.-Iranian nuclear deal.

“You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal,” Routh wrote.

Last year, Routh left someone a confessional letter in which he apologized for failing to assassinate Trump — before he was even accused of trying to shoot him.

Federal authorities say Routh tried to take matters into his own hands when he attempted to assassinate Trump on Sept. 15, 2024, at the Trump International Golf Club, less than two months before he won the presidency for a second time. His historic trial in Fort Pierce federal court gets underway Monday with jury selection, followed by opening statements Thursday.

Representing himself at trial

Routh, who was appointed a federal public defender because of his indigent circumstances, dismissed his taxpayer-funded lawyer over the summer and will be defending himself at trial.

“I will be representing myself moving forward,” Routh wrote U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in late June. “It was ridiculous from the outset to consider a random stranger that knows nothing of who I am to speak for me. That was foolish and ignorant, and I am sorry — a childish mistake.”

In the letter, Routh delves into the fantastical idea of being used as a pawn in a prisoner swap with Hamas, Iran or Russia, “so I could die being of some use and save all this court mess — but no one acts. Perhaps you have the power to trade me away.”

In legal circles, there’s an old saying that “a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.” Given the possibility of a life sentence in Routh’s case, that he has chosen to defend himself comes with dire personal and legal risks, legal experts say.

“That saying takes into consideration that the lawyer who is representing himself or herself has the knowledge, training and experience because they are licensed to practice law,” said seasoned defense attorney Frank Quintero. “Imagine someone who doesn’t. An untrained defendant has no knowledge of the substantive law, the Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Rules of Evidence, or how to protect the record for appeal by objecting.

“Every time a defendant represents himself or herself bad things happen, it never fails,” Quintero said, adding that what Routh needs is a good lawyer and a pysch evaluation to determine competency. “Based on the letter he wrote to the judge, he clearly lives in a fantasy world where in his mind he could be exchanged with captives held by Hamas, Russia and Iran in a plea deal.”

Same judge who dismissed case against Trump

Routh’s case was randomly assigned to Cannon, who allowed the defendant to represent himself but still required the federal public defender’s office to be on standby should he need their counsel. Trump nominated Cannon to the federal bench in 2020.

Last year, Cannon dismissed the U.S. government’s classified documents case against the former president, saying that the special counsel who brought it was not legally appointed — a ruling that Routh’s assistant federal public defenders tried to use to get Cannon recused from his case, to no avail.

The Routh indictment charges him with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

‘Sniper’s nest’

On a scorching Sunday afternoon last September, Trump was playing a round of golf at his club in West Palm Beach during the peak of his political campaign for a second term as president.

As the Republican candidate stood on the fifth-hole putting green, a Secret Service agent was riding a golf cart in a security sweep of the sixth hole and noticed someone hiding behind a chain-link fence in the southeast corner of the course. He spotted the scope of a rifle sticking through the brush-obscured enclosure.

“The agent jumped out of the golf cart, drew his weapon and began backing away,” a prosecutor said in federal court last fall. “The agent saw the rifle barrel move and ... fired at the defendant.”

Federal authorities say the man lurking behind the cyclone fence was Routh, who has a history as a convicted felon. He had traveled from North Carolina to South Florida with a semiautomatic rifle in mid-August of last year to carry out the attempted execution of the former president at Trump International Golf Club a month later, according to the FBI.

Authorities say he set up a “sniper’s nest” along the fence on the southern end of the sixth hole as he waited to take a shot at Trump just a few hundred yards away.

When the Secret Service agent fired four shots at him after spotting his rifle sticking through the fence, Routh fled but he left the weapon behind with his fingerprints on the electrical tape attached to the scope, according to the FBI.

A witness saw Routh running across the road from the golf course and getting into a black Nissan Xterra. The witness reported the information, along with a partial license plate number, to law enforcement. Routh was later stopped that same day while heading north on I-95 by Martin County sheriff’s deputies, in coordination with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

According to an FBI criminal complaint and affidavit, agents found an SKS semiautomatic rifle with an attached scope and an extended magazine where Routh had been hiding by the fence on the perimeter of the golf course. The serial number on the rifle was obliterated and unreadable. Hanging from the fence was a backpack and a reusable shopping bag — each containing a plate capable of stopping small arms fire, according to prosecutors.

FBI agents later found Routh’s documents containing a handwritten list of dates in August, September and October of last year and venues where the former president had appeared or was expected to be present. Records for two of the cellphones found in the Nissan Xterra showed that on multiple days and times from Aug. 18 to Sept. 15 of last year, Routh’s mobile phone accessed cell towers located near Trump International and Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.

Soon after Routh’s arrest amid widespread news coverage, a civilian witness in North Carolina contacted law enforcement stating that Routh had dropped off a box at his residence several months before the attempted assassination attempt, according to prosecutors John Shipley and Christopher Browne. The box contained a smattering of items, including ammunition, building materials, four cellphones and handwritten letters.

One of those letters, which was addressed as “Dear World,” outlined Routh’s plans, stating, “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job.”

In the letter, Routh offered a $150,000 reward “to whomever can complete the job.” Among the grievances outlined in the letter is that Trump, during his first term as president, “ended relations with Iran” and that, consequently, “the Middle East has unraveled.”

Previous criminal history

Since his arrest, Routh has been held in a federal lock-up in South Florida as he awaits trial. He has a criminal history dating back more than two decades, which might be used by prosecutors at his trial. Routh was convicted in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2002 for possessing an explosive device. He was convicted again in North Carolina in 2010 on multiple counts of possessing stolen goods, according to authorities.

Originally from North Carolina, Routh most recently lived in Hawaii. In a court filing, prosecutors said they found a Hawaii driver’s license in Routh’s name in his car, along with six cellphones. One of those phones contained a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.

Investigators also said that law enforcement found handwritten notes, including one containing the list of dates and locations where Trump had been or was scheduled to appear.

A notebook recovered from the vehicle was filled with “names and phone numbers pertaining to Ukraine, discussions about how to join combat on behalf of Ukraine, and notes criticizing the governments of China and Russia.”

The vehicle that Routh had fled in — the black Nissan Xterra — also bore a license plate that was not registered to the car, according to the court filing. The plate had been stolen from a vehicle in Florida, prosecutors said.

Routh held passionate political views that were all over the map. He said he regretted voting for Trump and was so disturbed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that he mounted a motley effort to assemble recruits to help fight on the front lines, according to his social media accounts.

He reached out to The New York Times to discuss his theories on the war and to discuss his heroic endeavors to fight and die in Ukraine, the paper reported. He also tried to meet with the Helsinki Commission to persuade them to do more for Ukraine, the Times reported.

Routh’s social media accounts, suspended by Facebook and X, show a man whose political viewpoints shifted over the years, ranging from support of politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Trump — to his support last year of former Republican presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.

In his self-published book, “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” Routh openly wrote about his desire to end Trump’s life: “No one here in the U.S. seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection.”

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