Fort Pierce, Fla. โ Jury selection begins Monday in the federal trial of Ryan Routh, who prosecutors say plotted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club in September 2024. The process is expected to conclude by Wednesday.
Prospective jurors are being questioned under oath in Fort Pierce to determine whether they can serve impartially. Routh, who is representing himself, will directly question jurors alongside federal prosecutors โ an unusual dynamic in the courtroom.
The case is being heard by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who denied a motion from Routhโs defense team seeking her recusal. A Trump appointee, Cannon was randomly assigned to the case.
Federal prosecutors allege Routh camped near Trumpโs golf course for 12 hours with a rifle and aimed at a Secret Service agent before being forced to drop the weapon. Investigators later discovered a letter in which Routh expressed regret that he failed to kill Trump, as well as evidence he sought anti-aircraft weapons and surveillance of Trumpโs flights weeks before his arrest.
Routh faces charges of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and multiple gun violations โ crimes carrying potential life sentences. He has pleaded not guilty to both federal and related state charges.
A 12-member jury, plus alternates, will ultimately decide the case. Federal law requires a unanimous verdict for conviction.
Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell (D) said that she will resign after being convicted last week on two felony charges.
Nicole Mitchell was convicted of felony first-degree burglary and possession of burglary or theft tools for breaking into her stepmother Carol Mitchell’s Minnesota home in April 2024.
Nicole Mitchell pleaded not guilty, and during the trial, her defense argued that she was at the home to check on her stepmother, who lives with Alzheimer’s.
Nicole Mitchell’s stepmother Carol Mitchell reportedly took the stand, saying that she felt “extremely violated” after finding Nicole Mitchell in her home.
Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said Nicole Mitchell “has gotten the due process she is entitled to and was convicted by a jury of her peers.”
“With the clarity brought by the resolution of this case, the Senate DFL Caucus will continue to focus on issues that improve the lives of Minnesota families and communities,” Murphy said.
GOPSenate Minority Leader Mark Johnson criticized her decision to not resign immediately and blamed Democrats for “refusing to hold her accountable during session.”His caucus tried and failed to expel Mitchell from the chamber in the wake of the charges.
“Senator Mitchell was convicted of two felonies; she doesn’t get to give the Senate two weeks’ notice. Democrats shielded Mitchell for 15 months to protect their political power, but a jury needed just three hours to confirm what was already clear: she shouldn’t be a senator,” he said in a statement.
Gov. Tim Walz’s office is expected to announce details about a special election after Nicole Mitchell’s resignation. There is another special election set for September to fill a vacancy left by former House Speaker Melissa Hortman’s politically-motivated assassination.
On Monday, the Florida man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in court.
Ryan Routh, 58, appeared in federal court Monday to enterย five not guilty pleas to counts including attempted assassination of a major political candidate and assault of a federal officer, after he allegedly poked a rifle through the perimeter of Trumpโs West Palm Beach golf course, prompting a Secret Service agent to fire. ย
Routh alsoย pleaded not guilty to charges he possessed a firearm with an obliterated serial number despite being a convicted felon, in furtherance of a crime of violence.ย
BREAKING: Ryan Routh pleads not guilty to charges including attempted assassination of Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/80lC6HeYUB
BREAKING: The man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump after allegedly positioning himself with a rifle outside one of the former president's Florida golf courses on Sept. 15 pleaded not guilty to five federal charges https://t.co/eWSSWuwfaWpic.twitter.com/uawEUqta1P
JUST IN: Ryan Routh has pleaded not guilty to federal charges in connection with an alleged attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at the former president's golf club in Florida. https://t.co/OIryzNTKAGpic.twitter.com/BKDukEz4G7
Prosecutors say Routh planned to kill Trump as he golfed on Sept. 15, staking out the perimeter of the course near its sixth hole for roughly 12 hours until he was noticed and fled. They revealed last week that Routh allegedly wrote a letter months before the assassination attempt detailing his plans.
โDear world, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you,โ Routh wrote, according to the letter filed by prosecutors. โI tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.โ
Routh has been in custody since the incident and faces up to life in prison.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
A suspect accused of breaking into a Donald Trump campaign office outside of Washington, D.C. has been arrested, according to reports.
Toby Shane Kessler, 39, was detained on Saturday by the University of California, San Francisco Police Department for squatting in a campus dorm, the Loudoun County sheriffโs office said in a release on Thursday.ย
Kessler was allegedlyย behind the break-inย at a Trump campaign office in Ashburn, Va., in August. He broke in through the back door of the office and spent a โbriefโ period of time there before exiting, according to the Loudoun County sheriffโs office.ย
The office is also used as the Virginia 10th District Republican Committeeโs headquarters.
The sheriffโs office said that Kessler faces burglary charges, though law enforcement did not say if he took anything from the office.
โIt is rare to have the office of any political campaign or party broken into,โ Sheriff Mike Chapman said at the time the incident took place. โWe are determined to identify the suspect, investigate why it happened, and determine what may have been taken as well as what may have been left behind.โ
In mid-August, the Loudoun County sheriffโs office said Kessler has a โhistory of criminal behavior and appears to have been in the Washington metropolitan area at least since 2018.โ
Democrat Denver Mayor Mike Johnston recently said he wasย prepared to break with President-elect Donald Trump’s deportation plans and Republicans are warning he will absolutely suffer the consequences.
Johnston said during a recent interview that he was prepared to protest against anything he believes is “illegal or immoral or un-American” in the city โ including the use of military force.
During a Sunday morning interview on Face The Nation, Paul told anchor Margaret Brennan that Johnstonโs plan is a โform of insurrectionโ that could see him removed from office.
BRENNAN: The stated Trump plan is to use the military or military assets, deputize the National Guard, and have them act as immigration agents. Do you believe that is lawful?
PAUL: You know, Iโm 100% supportive of going after the 15,000 murderers, the 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators, rapist, all of these people. Letโs send them on their way to prison or back home to another prison. So I would say all points bulletin all in. But you donโt do it with the army because itโs illegal. And weโve weโve had a distrust of putting the army into our streets because the police have a difficult job. But the police understand the Fourth Amendment. They have to go to judges. They have to get warrants. It has to be specific. And so Iโm for removing these people. But I would do it through the normal process of domestic policing.
Now, I would say that the mayor of Denver, if heโs going to resist federal law, which thereโs a long standing, standing history of the supremacy of federal law, heโs going to resist that. It will go all the way to the Supreme Court. And I would suspect that he would be removed from office. I donโt know whether or not that would be a criminal prosecution for someone resisting federal law. But he will lose. And people need to realize that what he is offering is a form of insurrection where the states resist the federal government. Most people objected to that and rejected that long ago. So I think the mayor of Denver is on the wrong side of history and really, I think will face legal ramifications if he doesnโt obey the federal law.
The president-elect’s pick to be the next border czar responded that he’s willing to put the Denver Mayor in jail for outright flouting Trump’s policies.
“You are absolutely breaking the law,” Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar” designate, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “All he has to do is look at Arizona v. U.S. and he would see he’s breaking the law. But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing. Heโs willing to go to jail, Iโm willing to put him in jail.”
Homan pointed to a statute that says it’s a “felony if you knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from immigration authorities.”
Homan said they have to secure this country and save lives.
“President Trump has been clear, we want to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats. I find it hard to believe that any governor would say they donโt want public safety threats removed from their neighborhoods,” he said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is looking for support anywhere he can get it.
Adams said he would โwelcome support from every Americanโ in response to aย questionย from theย Washington Examinerย about whether he would accept former Presidentย Donald Trumpโsย favor.
Trump recently said he had predicted Adams would be โindicted within a yearโ as the mayor called for federal government funds to deal with the cityโs migrant crisis.
โListen, I welcome support from every American,โ Adams said Tuesday at a press conference. โNo matter where they are and who they are, I welcome support from every American. Those who know me and know how I am, and those who are just reading up on this. So every American in this great country, I welcome support from.โ
Trumpโs comments last week suggested that he sympathized with the mayor.
โI watched about a year ago when he talked about how the illegal migrants are hurting our city, and the federal government should pay us, and we shouldnโt have to take them,โ the former president said. โAnd I said, โYou know what? Heโll be indicted within a year,โ and I was exactly right.โ
Watch:
An Adams spokesman believes press coverage of Adamsโs remarks has been misguided.
โThis is a distortion of what the mayor said today,โ Fabien Levy, Adamsโs deputy mayor for communications, said in a social media post. โHe never said he was looking for Trumpโs support. Mayor Adams has said multiple times that he supports Kamala Harris for president. In fact, the mayor traveled to Chicago to support her historic nomination in August.โ
Adams was recently indicted on five corruption charges, including bribery and wire fraud, for his actions allegedly soliciting benefits from foreign nationals, namely Turkish government officials, in exchange for favors.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams could be facing a bevy of new charges after being indicted last week in a federal corruption case. On Wednesday, prosecutors said that further counts are โquite likelyโ and that more defendants may be implicated.
President Trump said Tuesday the federal government would seek the death penalty for murders committed in Washington, D.C.
“Anybody murders something in the capital, capital punishment,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “Capital, capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty. And that’s a very strong preventative.”
The District of Columbia hasn’t executed anyone since 1957, after Robert Carter was convicted of fatally shooting an off-duty police officer.
CBS News reported that previously, D.C. had mandatory death sentences for first-degree murders, a policy the Supreme Court later voided in the 1972 caseย Furman v. Georgiaย when it found that the death penalty was being applied in an unconstitutionally arbitrary manner. Four years later, the high courtย allowedย capital punishment to be reinstated with clearer sentencing guidelines. The D.C. City Council, however, abolished the death penalty in 1981.ย
Washington went 12 days without a murder during the federal government’s crime crackdown, a streak broken early Tuesday with the killing of a 31-year-old man in Southeast D.C., according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Vice Presidentย JD Vance,ย a day earlier, said the capital typically averaged one murder every other day, before commending the president on saving 6-7 lives since deploying the National Guard
On his first day in office, the president signed an executive order directing the attorney general to seek the death penalty in cases involving the murder of a law enforcement officer or “a capital crime committed by an alien illegally present in this country.”
Havana, Cuba โ On September 25, 2025, Cubaโs Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Joanne Deborah Byron โ better known by her aliases Joanne Chesimard and Assata Shakur โ died in Havana at the age of 78 due to health complications and the rigors of old age.
This news brings to a close a decades-long saga in which a convicted murderer escaped justice, was shielded by a hostile foreign regime, and became a symbol for radical causes.
A Fugitiveโs Origin: From Violent Crime to Escape to Cuba
In 1977, Chesimard was convicted on multiple serious charges including first-degree murder, armed robbery, and other felonies after a 1973 shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that left State Trooper Werner Foerster dead.
She escaped prison in 1979, spent years underground, and resurfaced in 1984 under asylum in Cuba โ a regime that refused U.S. extradition requests.
For decades, the United States and New Jersey authorities pushed Cuba to hand her over. She carried the dubious distinction of being the first woman ever placed on the FBIโs Most Wanted Terrorists list, with a $1 million reward for her capture.
A Death Without Accountability
Her passing in Havana presents a bitter irony: after decades of immunity facilitated by a foreign government, she dies free โ far from the prison cell where she was supposed to serve life in the U.S.
New Jersey officials immediately expressed outrage. They reiterated that justice was never fully served for Trooper Foersterโs family.
Cubaโs complicity in harboring Chesimard has long been roundly condemned by American leaders. Senator Marco Rubio recently denounced Havana for providing โa safe haven for terrorists and criminals, including fugitives from the United States.โ
What She Represented โ and What the U.S. Must Learn
For defenders of law and order, her story is a cautionary tale of diplomatic failure and ideological double standards.
Rule of Law Must Be Absolute: A convicted cop killer escaping and living with impunity is a stain on the integrity of the justice system.
Foreign Regimes Should Not Shield Criminals: Cubaโs refusal to extradite Chesimard fashioned her into a political symbol, rather than merely a criminal. That sets a dangerous precedent.
Consistency in Foreign Policy Matters: If the U.S. does not forcefully demand accountability from regimes that shelter fugitives, it weakens its moral and strategic footing.
Now that she has died abroad, the question of bringing her remains home may arise. But more importantly, the memory of Trooper Foerster โ his sacrifice and service โ must remain central. And the mission remains: to hold foreign governments accountable when they interfere with American justice.
A jury has reportedly reached a verdict in the trial of Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate then-candidate Trump on his golf course.
Routh was found guilty on all charges. Routh attempted to stab himself in the neck with a pen after learning the verdict. Multiple court marshals were needed to de-escalate the situation and temporarily removed Routh from the courtroom.
๐จ HOLY CRAP. After Ryan Routh was found guilty of trying to assassinate President Trump, he tried to STAB HIMSELF in the NECK "with a pen."
Then, 4 Marshals dragged him out of the room, shackled him, and brought him back into the courtroom.
The case was heard by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who denied a motion from Routhโs defense team seeking her recusal. A Trump appointee, Cannon was randomly assigned to the case.
Todayโs guilty verdict against would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh illustrates the Department of Justiceโs commitment to punishing those who engage in political violence.
This attempted assassination was not only an attack on our President, but an affront to our very nationโฆ
Federal prosecutors alleged Routh camped near Trumpโs golf course for 12 hours with a rifle and aimed at a Secret Service agent before being forced to drop the weapon. Investigators later discovered a letter in which Routh expressed regret that he failed to kill Trump, as well as evidence he sought anti-aircraft weapons and surveillance of Trumpโs flights weeks before his arrest.
Routh was found guilty of the attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and multiple gun violations โ crimes carrying potential life sentences.
Routh faces up to life in prison. Routh pleaded not guilty to all charges.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
President Donald Trump is expected to fire the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after his office was unable to find incriminating evidence ofย mortgage fraudย against New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to sources.ย
Federal prosecutors in Virginia had uncovered no clear evidence to prove that James had knowingly committed mortgage fraud when she purchased a home in the state in 2023, ABC Newsย first reportedย earlier this week, but Trump officials pushed U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert to nevertheless bring criminal charges against her, according to sources.
Alec Perkins from Hoboken, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The president has reportedly been leaning on federal prosecutors to bring charges against James for alleged mortgage fraud. She has beenย accusedย of falsely claiming her house in Virginia as her primary residence despite being legally required to live in New York as an elected official there.
ABC News reported on Wednesday that Siebert, who is the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was having difficulty finding enough evidence to sustain a conviction against James. On Thursday, the outlet said Trump is expected to fire the prosecutor.
โAdministration officials have told Siebert of Trumpโs intention to fire him, sources familiar with the matter said,โ ABC News stated. โSiebertโs last day on the job is expected to be Friday.โ
Trump nominated Siebert for the job in May.
โThe decision to fire Siebert could throw into crisis one of the most prominent U.S. attorneyโs offices, which handles a bulk of the countryโs espionage and terrorism cases, and heighten concerns about Trumpโs alleged use of the DOJ to target his political adversaries,โ ABC News stated.
In May, the FBI opened an investigation into the notorious prosecutor. James has denied wrongdoing and called the investigation politically motivated, pointing to her officeโs civil fraud case against Trump. That case ultimately resulted in a $354 million judgment against the president, which also bars his
During her 2018 campaign for attorney general, James publicly stated she intended to pursue legal action against Trump and investigate his business dealings in New York.
While campaigning, James vowed to shine a โbright light into every cornerโ of Trumpโs โreal estate dealings.โ Her critics โ including Trump himself โ would later argue that her civil lawsuit against him was a political witch hunt.
In announcing the probe, US Attorney John A. Sarcone III took a swipe at Jamesโs 2018 campaign rhetoric about investigating President Donald Trump.
The US attorney said James โunethically ran around the state campaigning on getting Donald Trump,โ and essentially accused her of finding a criminal target without an alleged crime.
He added:
We stand prepared to act in the capacity that we need to when and if we are informed thereโs a charge to be made. Unlike Letitia James, who unethically ran around the state campaigning on getting Donald Trumpโฆ my office conducts itself in a manner that is proper and professional.