Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Wednesday announced the state has obtained an arrest warrant for attempted felony murder against Ryan Routh, who is already being held in federal custody on charges of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump.
It’s a continuation of a back-and-forth between the Biden administration and Florida Republican leaders over the state’s role in investigating the September assassination attempt, which was the second attempt on Trump's life in three months. Routh’s trial date is set for February.
Routh is facing five federal charges, including attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate, but Florida officials have said the federal government has “stonewalled” the state’s ability to conduct their own investigation or partner with the federal investigation.
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“The feds have stonewalled Florida’s investigation of the Trump assassination attempt at every turn, and I appreciate AG Moody and her team for plowing forward despite some resistance,” DeSantis posted on X after Moody made her announcement during a morning press conference.
Trump has been critical of the Department of Justice’s handling of the second assassination attempt. The Justice Department did not answer a request for comment.
Moody said the arrest warrant for attempted felony murder is not directly related to the Trump assassination attempt itself but because of a vehicle crash that happened as the result of police shutting down traffic on a highway as they attempted to catch a fleeing Routh.
Moody says that backed-up traffic as the result of the search caused a vehicle accident that injured a six-year-old girl, which motivated the state’s push to seek its own charges. The crash happened three or four miles south of where Routh was apprehended, according to an affidavit released by Moody’s office.
“When you couple those terrible injuries together with his other criminal conduct, which we believe rises to the level of domestic terrorism, it turns his actions into an attempted felony murder,” Moody said at the press conference.
The threat against Trump's life while he was playing golf at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach immediately drew attention from Florida Republican leaders after the Sept. 15 incident.
Two days later, DeSantis issued an executive order directing state law enforcement to investigate the attempted assassination, and a month later, Moody sued the FBI over what she called at the time an “unlawful attempt to block Florida’s criminal investigation.”
During her press conference Wednesday, which DeSantis could not attend due to inclement weather, much of Moody’s comments focused on a “new day” that Trump’s law enforcement appointments will bring to the federal government.
She specifically mentioned Trump's pick for U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, who previously held the same post in Florida, and FBI director pick Kash Patel.
“A new day is coming,” Moody said. “The people who have been nominated, Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, love this country and what it is meant to be.”
Moody, who is among the contenders on a shortlist to fill the Senate seat being vacated by secretary of state pick Marco Rubio, reiterated her support for Trump’s nomination of both Patel and Bondi.
“I expect next month we will see new leadership at agencies that will rightly reach out as intended,” she said.
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