TWO North Carolinians plead guilty to aiding attempted Trump assassination
You might remember the guy authorities caught hiding in the wooded areas around the Trump golf course down in Palm Beach. He was reportedly equipped and ready to go with a hit on our president.
Thank goodness he was caught before the plan could be carried out. Now, we learn that suspect Ryan Routh had TWO accomplices from our. great state helping him in this plot:
Ryan Wesley Routh, a cheerleader for a Ukrainian brigade associated with neo-Nazis since its inception, allegedly attempted to assassinate the president at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15.
On that day, Routh — who made around 20 small donations to Democrats through ActBlue between 2019 and 2020 and whom the Biden Department of Homeland Security declined to investigate despite previous complaints — allegedly took aim at a U.S. Secret Service agent conducting a security sweep with an SKS semiautomatic 7.62×39 caliber rifle with a scope attached and an extended magazine.
One of the two individuals arrested in April and accused by the Department of Justice of selling Routh the same Chinese-made weapon pleaded guilty to firearm trafficking on Monday.
Acting U.S. Attorney Randall Galyon of the Middle District of North Carolina alleged in a pair of court filings — one in May and another last week — that Tina Brown Cooper, who ultimately entered the guilty plea, agreed and conspired with Ronnie Jay Oxendine, her former employer, to “sell and dispose of a firearm to a prohibited person (Routh).”
Cooper set up the deal despite knowing that Routh had previously been charged with multiple felonies after threatening to blow up a police station.
In a Sept. 22 interview with FBI agents, Oxendine allegedly indicated that he met Routh in the 1990s, when they both owned roofing companies, and that they periodically crossed paths at hardware supply stores. Cooper separately indicated that she had known Routh since approximately 1999 and had worked for his company, United Roofing.
Around mid-July 2024, Cooper asked her then-employer, Oxendine, whether he had any guns for sale, then later informed him in a July 27 text message that Routh was making his way to Greensboro, North Carolina, and wanted to meet, court documents said.
Cooper — who was apparently chatting with Routh on Facebook Messenger from January 2014 until January 2022 — told FBI agents that upon learning of the alleged assassination attempt on Sept. 15, she deleted the contents of her phone to avoid any traces of involvement.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice asked the federal court in Florida overseeing Routh’s case to admit non-hearsay statements by Cooper as they relate to her alleged efforts to obtain firearms on Routh’s behalf.
In the filing, the DOJ also claimed that the trio not only discussed the rifle’s serial numbers post-sale, but discussed the matter of possibly also acquiring a .50-caliber rifle for Routh.
Routh filed a motion of his own on Tuesday, requesting a new defense team for his case.
He was charged last year with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. If convicted, Routh could spend the rest of his life in prison.
