WASHINGTON (AP) — The son of the man suspected in the Florida assassination attempt on the former president Donald Trump was arrested on federal charges of possession of child sexual abuse images.
Oran Alexander Routh was arrested this week after authorities searched his Greensboro, North Carolina, home “in connection with an unrelated child exploitation investigation” and discovered hundreds of files describing child sexual abuse, an FBI agent said in court documents.
Investigators who seized several electronic devices found videos sent to Oran Routh in July as well as conversations from a messaging app commonly used by people who share child sexual abuse material, the FBI agent said.
He faces two counts of possession and receipt of child sexual abuse material and is expected to appear later Tuesday in federal court in North Carolina.
No attorney was listed for Routh in court documents. Phone messages left for Routh’s relatives were not immediately returned.
Oran Routh’s father, Ryan Wesley Routh, has been charged with federal firearms offenses in connection with the case. assassination attempt at Trump’s golf course in Florida earlier this month. Prosecutors have indicated that much more serious attempted murder charges will be filed.
Routh’s arrest was first reported Tuesday by ABC News.
A federal judge agreed with Justice Department prosecutors Monday that Ryan Routh should remain locked up pending trial.
Prosecutors said Routh left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept a handwritten list of dates and locations where Trump was scheduled to appear in his car. The note outlining Routh’s plans was placed in a box he had dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who didn’t open it until after Routh’s arrest, prosecutors said.
Ryan Routh is currently charged for illegally possessing his gun despite multiple felony convictions, including two counts of possession of stolen property in 2002 in North Carolina, and for possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
But a prosecutor said in court Monday that he would bring additional charges before a grand jury, accusing him of attempting to “assassinate a major political candidate” – charges that would warrant a possible life sentence if convicted.
It is common for prosecutors to file easier-to-prove charges as an immediate fallback before adding more substantial allegations as the case progresses.
Ryan Routh was arrested on September 15 after a Secret Service agent surveying the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a man’s face partially obscured and the barrel of a semi-automatic rifle pointed directly at the former president.
The officer shot Routh, who fled before being arrested by authorities in a neighboring county, leaving behind a loaded rifle, a digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag hanging from a chain-link fence.
