WASHINGTON — A 58-year-old man accused of trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump acknowledged in a prewritten note that he had planned the attack — and even predicted his failure, according to a federal court filing Monday.

The man, Ryan W. Routh, staked out the grounds of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, for a month before the episode, the filing said. He positioned himself outside the fence at the sixth hole of the course on Sept. 15, before a Secret Service agent scouting one hole ahead of the former president’s group spotted him and the barrel of his gun.

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At the time he was seen, Routh had aligned himself directly to the sixth hole, with the intention of shooting Trump from a relatively short distance with a semiautomatic rifle, prosecutors said. The rifle, equipped with a scope and left at the scene, had a bullet in the chamber and a total of 11 rounds. Investigators also found Routh’s fingerprint on the weapon.

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster,” Routh wrote in a note placed inside a box, left at a friend’s house, found by investigators after he was arrested. “It is up to you to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”

Note Said Trump Was Unfit to Be President

In the note, Routh also wrote that Trump was unfit to be president. Routh had left the note at the house several months before the shooting, an indication that he had been planning the assassination for a long time.

Routh was scheduled to appear before a federal judge in West Palm Beach on Monday morning for a detention hearing. Last week, he was charged with possessing a firearm as a felon, which carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

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Prosecutors disclosed the new information in a memo written to convince a federal judge to detain Routh indefinitely while he awaits trial. The filing paints the clearest picture to date of an itinerant and impoverished contractor who repeatedly professed his willingness to die to defend Ukraine.

Law enforcement officials, searching Routh’s Nissan SUV, found “a handwritten list of dates in August, September and October 2024 and venues where the former president had appeared or was expected to be present,” according to the memo.

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Agents also found six cellphones — including one that contained a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico — 12 pairs of gloves, a Hawaii driver’s license in Routh’s name and a passport.

In their memo, prosecutors also noted Routh’s extensive criminal history, saying he was convicted of multiple counts of possessing stolen goods.

In 2002, he was charged in North Carolina with possessing a weapon of mass death and destruction, a felony. Court documents describe the weapon as a “binary explosive with a 10-inch detonation and a blasting cap.” He was convicted and placed on supervised probation for 60 months.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Glenn Thrush and Adam Goldman/Saul Martinez
c. 2024 The New York Times Company