Trump foments distrust of federal law enforcement over assassination attempt probe

Republican nominee Donald Trump further escalated his long-running bid to discredit federal law enforcement by accusing agencies on Monday of mishandling the investigation of last week’s apparent assassination attempt and demanding Florida officials take over the case.

“OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT AND DISCREDITED, especially as it pertains to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” Trump said in a campaign statement on Monday. “LET FLORIDA HANDLE THE CASE!”

Earlier on Monday, prosecutors argued for the ongoing detention of the man accused of bringing a rifle to a golf course where Trump was playing on Sept. 15, presenting new evidence that the suspect allegedly left a note declaring his intent to assassinate the former president. The judge at the hearing agreed to keep the suspect, Ryan Routh, in custody.

Prosecutors said at Monday’s hearing that they intend to bring assassination attempt charges against Routh. In the meantime, he has been charged with two federal gun crimes while the investigation proceeds.

Trump criticized the initial charges as “a slap on the wrist” and accused the Justice Department and FBI of “downplaying” the threat to his life because they “have been coming after me nonstop with Weaponized Lawfare,” a term for alleged political tampering in prosecutions of Trump and his supporters.

His statement sought to implicate President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, picking up on other recent remarks blaming them for failing to protect him. There is no evidence that Biden or Harris were involved in any security decisions leading up to the apparent assassination attempts, and Biden has since ordered the administration to provide the Secret Service with every available resource and asked Congress for more funding.

The Harris campaign and a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors, in the court filing on Monday, also alleged that Routh’s note promised money he did not have to anyone who killed Trump if he failed. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who is running for Senate, mischaracterized that allegation as prosecutors “leaking” a “bounty,” in a social media post promoted by Trump’s co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita.

Trump’s statement said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had “already agreed” to lead the prosecution. DeSantis’s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump’s outburst followed weeks of public and private clashes with federal authorities tasked with protecting the former president and investigating threats to his campaign, from assassination attempts to hacking by Iranian spies.

In the statement, Trump proceeded to recite a long list of legal problems that he attributed to his political opponents, using shorthand familiar to his fans, including:

• “Russia, Russia, Russia,” meaning special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election
• “Impeachment Hoax Number One,” again meaning the 2019 impeachment, for which the Senate acquitted him; and “Impeachment Hoax Number Two,” meaning his 2021 impeachment for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, again resulting in acquittal
• “the Lawless Documents Hoax,” meaning the court-authorized search of his Mar-a-Lago estate as part of a federal prosecution for mishandling classified documents, which a Trump-appointed judge dismissed in July
• “the January 6th Hoax” and “the J6 Unselect Committee,” meaning the House investigation into the attack on the Capitol
• “the Manhattan D.A.’s Zombie Case,” meaning his conviction in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a 2016 hush money scheme
• “the New York A.G. Scam,” meaning New York Attorney General Letitia James’s lawsuit accusing Trump’s businesses of fraud, resulting in a $450 million judgment in February

Trump said his distrust stemmed from the prosecutions against him brought by a federal special counsel and local district attorneys, calling them “FAKE CASES” and claiming without evidence that they were centrally controlled by “the Biden/Harris DOJ/FBI.” His sentencing in New York is scheduled for Nov. 26. Special counsel Jack Smith is appealing the dismissal of the documents case and pressing forward with a separate prosecution for Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. A separate case accusing Trump of interfering in the election results in Georgia, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, was also delayed until after the Nov. 5 election.

“The DOJ and FBI have a Conflict of Interest since they have been obsessed with ‘Getting Trump’ for so long,” he said on Monday. He also complained that FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, who Trump appointed, testified to Congress in July that he was not certain what struck Trump’s ear at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pa. The FBI quickly clarified that Trump was injured by a bullet or a fragment.

Before the Butler shooting, the Secret Service repeatedly denied requests from the Trump campaign for more security measures at campaign events, four people familiar with the matter said. An internal review released Friday identified multiple mistakes by the Secret Service, including failing to detect a drone that the shooter flew over the rally in advance, failing to notify Trump’s detail that police were searching for a suspicious person, and never directing snipers to cover the roof from which the gunman fired.

Trump’s mistrust of federal agencies has complicated the investigation into Iran’s cyberattack on his campaign. When a technology firm first discovered the breach, campaign aides huddled to discuss what they should do. After hours of discussions in July, they decided they trusted the software experts to handle the matter and did not call the FBI. Co-campaign manager Susie Wiles, whose email account was targeted, was among those who questioned whether they could trust the Justice Department. The fears centered on giving federal officials access to campaign email servers and whether they would leak information out publicly.

Trump has been generally satisfied with how the FBI has handled the hacking case so far, but there has not been much contact, according to advisers. Some top campaign officials have also expressed frustration privately that they don’t know more about Iran or U.S. government intelligence on what the country is doing.

The campaign’s transition is not expected to use space provided by the General Services Administration, partially because they do not trust the federal government, people familiar with the matter say.

And in August, when the U.S. Army asked the campaign not to bring cameras into Arlington National Cemetery’s most sacred ground — Trump aides ignored the order and then criticized the military official who tried to block the cameras, alleging with no evidence that she had suffered from a mental health episode.

The Trump team has also been unimpressed with Ronald L. Rowe Jr., the acting director of the Secret Service, highlighting both his briefings and the fact that he wanted a photographer to follow him on Trump’s golf course after last week’s apparent assassination attempt. The briefings, Trump’s team says, have been generally useless, and they believe the Secret Service still needs to do more to protect Trump. The former president has said he wants more people on his detail, according to a campaign official.

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump and allies have made clear that in a second term he would assert more direct control over federal law enforcement, with Trump going so far as to name individual critics whom he wants to prosecute.