Alan Dershowitz expressed skepticism on Monday regarding the ability of federal prosecutors to establish a case for attempted murder against Ryan Wesley Routh, who is accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump on September 15.
Can Routh be convicted of attempted assassination? It's less clear than you think. Watch the Dershow live @ 5:30pm est on Youtube and Rumble. See my legal analysis of the law of attempts and how it affects an ex president. Leave a question in the live.https://t.co/buy3ewnd0T
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) September 23, 2024
Secret Service agents intervened during Routh’s alleged assassination attempt near Trump International Golf Club, following an incident two months prior where Trump was shot in the ear while speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Dershowitz stated that while Routh had the intent to kill Trump, it remains uncertain if all legal criteria for attempted murder are satisfied. “Based on my experience, I don’t think they have a case for attempted assassination,” Dershowitz remarked. “Let me explain why, this is gonna sound so counterintuitive. The guy obviously wanted to kill the president and he took actions to kill the president. Now here… you’re getting a free Harvard criminal law class.”
Dershowitz elaborated, saying, “If he conspired with somebody else to do, it would be an open and shut case, because for conspiracy all you need is an agreement to kill the president or to try to kill the president, and he did certainly agree with himself, he certainly made up his mind. We have the evidence, the letter, he wrote a letter… saying ‘I wanted to kill the president, I tried to kill the president, I failed, I’m giving $150,000 to anybody else who succeeds.’ So, if it were conspiracy, it would be a clear case, conspiracy to assassinate the president, open and shut. Why isn’t it an open and shut case for attempt?”
Federal prosecutors disclosed Routh’s letter in a court filing on Monday. “Criminal law distinguishes between preparation and attempt. Now, there’s no question: He prepared to kill the president,” Dershowitz noted regarding Routh’s actions. “He did everything he could to do it. He got the gun, he got the ammunition, he got the scope, he surveilled… he sat in the bushes and, of course, and to make this clear, the first guy who try to kill the president, who was killed, there was clearly an attempt. He fired a gun. He aimed at the president, fired at him and hit him in the ear. The clearest possible case of attempted murder.”
“He never had the president in his line of fire, and of course he never pulled the trigger,” Dershowitz added, referring to Routh. “So the question as the court will have to address, the question without a clear answer, is whether or not preparing, putting your gun in a location, putting it through the link fence, but not getting the president in the line of sight and not pulling the trigger is enough to turn it from preparation to attempt, and the law is just unclear on that.”
