Ryan Routh was convicted by a jury last September of five charges, including attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon handed down the sentence in a Florida courtroom, plus a mandatory additional seven years for a firearm offense for Routh.
“It’s clear to me that you engaged in a premeditated, calculated plot to take a human life,” Cannon said.
Routh, in a court filing, denied any intention to kill, arguing that no crime occurred because he never fired a shot at Trump.
Routh was arrested on Sept. 15, 2024, after a Secret Service agent saw the barrel of a rifle poking from the bushes, a few hundred yards from where Trump was golfing at his West Palm Beach golf club. Routh fled the scene, but was arrested shortly after.
The incident occurred two months after a bullet fired by a gunman grazed Trump’s ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Both incidents took place in the run-up to the November 2024 election in which Trump regained the presidency after being defeated four years earlier by Democrat Joe Biden.
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