A former Secret Service agent has said that the law enforcement agency ‘is broken’ having ‘dropped the ball once again’ in the apparent second assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump on Sunday.
Speaking to Fox News, former Secret Service agent Rich Starpoli said Secret Service agents failed to deal with warnings about the 58-year-old misfit Ryan Wesley Routh prior to him poking an AK-47 barrel through the fence of Trump’s West Palm Beach gold course, where the GOP candidate was playing.
‘This is the reason why local law enforcement for years has a tremendous distrust and quite frankly hates the FBI’, Starpoli said.
Agents opened fire on Routh after he was spotted by eagle-eyed officers in the bushes. But while the Secret Service has been praised for its swift action in foiling the attempted attack on the presidential nominee, questions have been raised over the measures taken to protect Trump.
The attempt on Sunday comes just two months after the former president was grazed in the ear by a bullet at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally in July.
Sormer Secret Service agent Rich Starpoli has said that feds have ‘dropped the ball once again’ in former president Donald Trump ‘s second assassination attempt on Sunday
Ryan Wesley Routh following his arrest in Martin County, Florida, on September 15
The attempt on Sunday comes just two months after the former president was grazed in the ear by a bullet at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally in July
Routh had in the past been charged with dozens of offenses during a lifetime of petty crime and was arrested for everything from felony larceny, to a hit and run, and for brandishing a weapon of mass destruction.
Referring to previous concerns raised about Routh, Starpoli condemned authorities for not investigating him further.
Routh’s behaviour had been flagged to the FBI prior to his trip to Ukraine, with the intelligence service receiving a tip in 2019 that Routh had a firearm despite being a felon. But after questioning, the investigation into Routh was closed.
‘What did they do here? They went out, they interviewed this guy, they closed the case, they put it on a shelf…how about calling the secret service? How about notifying local law enforcement for some follow up? Yet it wasn’t done’, Starpoli told Fox News.
The lawless would-be Trump shooter had also travelled to Ukraine in 2022 to support the war effort, but according to the Wall Street Journal, Routh acted so erratically that other Americans who encountered him flagged his behaviour to US authorities.
Ryan Routh, who allegedly tried to shoot Donald Trump at one of his Florida golf courses, is taken into custody on Sept. 15, 2024
Now-deleted Facebook profile of Ryan Routh, who allegedly tried to shoot Donald Trump at one of his Florida golf courses yesterday
Law enforcement personnel investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club after an apparent assassination attempt
Officials said U.S. Secret Service agents spotted a rifle barrel sticking out of the bushes two holes ahead of where Trump was golfing on Sunday, prompting the agents to fire at the suspect
One woman, a nurse named Chelsea Walsh, had several encounters with Routh in Kyiv in 2022, and reported him to a Customs and Border Protection officer at Washington Dulles airport in June 2022, claiming that his threats of violence had worried her.
‘They have left totally unresolved questions and have fed into conspiracy theories…this could have all been avoided if the acting director of the Secret Service simply would have stepped in front of the cameras right from the offset’.
‘The level of distrust and hatred by local law enforcement by the secret service has compounded the problem and has made it exponentially more difficult for the secret service to do their job,’ he added.
‘This is another blatant case where the FBI is supposed to be sharing information but wasn’t.
Starpoli also told Fox News: ‘You’re telling me that the secret service with a 4 billion dollar budget and 7000 employees cant predict and can’t prepost an event thats going happen on a golf course?.
