Secret Service fired 6 close-range shots at Ryan Routh—missed them all: report

Routh, who was positioned around 300-500 yards away from Trump on his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, was taken into custody earlier in the fall after USSS spotted him in the bushes with a rifle. After USSS agents took the shots at him, he ran off and was later arrested and charged in the alleged assassination attempt.

The report from the task force said that on September 15, there was an agent "riding along the fence line" of the golf course and then "noticed an individual by the fence line on the external perimeter."

"The agent first noticed the suspect, later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, and then noticed the barrel of Routh’s gun sticking through the fence line. The special agent, who may have been as close as five feet away from Routh, immediately responded by firing shots toward the suspect. It is believed six shots in total were fired; however, final ballistics are pending an ongoing FBI investigation," the report added.

Routh then fled from the scene to his "pre-positioned vehicle" the report adds. "A bystander who, according to the Secret Service, heard the shots and witnessed Routh running to his vehicle, snapped a photo of Routh’s license plate and provided it to one of the Secret Service special agents," it continued.

In addition to the shots revealed by the congressional report, other details have been unveiled including that Routh had 18 phones on him, but only owned 17 of the devices, per Fox News. Routh's legal team is considering going with the insanity defense, and he has written 40 letters to media outlets in an attempt to explain his actions. Routh has been charged with attempting to assassinate Trump and has requested a delay in the case until December 2025.