Ryan Routh, the accused would-be assassin of President Donald Trump, has written an unusual letter to the judge asking why the death penalty isn’t on the table and proposing that he be included in a prisoner swap with U.S. adversaries Iran, Hamas and Russia. Routh, who also said that he now wants to represent himself at trial, makes the outlandish requests in a letter to U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon who is overseeing the federal criminal case against him. Routh is charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump, assaulting a federal officer and multiple firearms violations for the Sept. 15 incident in Florida, the second attempted assassination plot against Trump in a matter of months.
Routh’s letter, which was filed on the case docket, includes a question about why the death penalty isn’t allowed, with him stating,