Secret Service agents didn’t sweep the outskirts of Donald Trump’s Florida golf course where his alleged would-be assassin was hiding because the former president’s visit was an “off-the-record” plan, the embattled agency’s acting director admitted.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, allegedly set up a sniper’s nest on the edge of Trump International West Palm Beach and hid there undetected for nearly 12 hours before Trump, 78, teed off on Sunday afternoon, federal prosecutors said.
Acting Secret Service head Ronald Rowe Jr. said Monday that agents didn’t mount an intense search of the perimeter because the 45th president’s round wasn’t on his official calendar.
“The president wasn’t even really supposed to go there. It was not on his official schedule,” Rowe told reporters as he defended the security measures in place.
“And so we put together a security plan — and that security plan worked,” he said of Rotuh’s arrest before he got off any shots.
Rowe stopped short of clarifying whether the “off-the-record” stop meant agents didn’t have enough time to scour the former president’s golf course.
Still, the acting director hailed the agents who ended up spotting the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course and opened fire on the suspect before he could take a shot.
The suspect allegedly dropped his rifle when an agent opened fire and fled in an SUV vehicle — leaving behind his firearm, two backpacks and a GoPro camera, according to a criminal complaint.
He was stopped and arrested some 40 minutes later on Interstate 95, authorities said.
Rowe’s remarks come as the Secret Service has been plagued by intense scrutiny ever since the first assassination attempt on Trump’s life during his campaign rally in Butler, Pa. on July 13.
Rowe, who stepped into his role after the agency’s embattled leader Kimberly Cheatle resigned following the first assassination attempt, previously told Congress he was “ashamed” of security lapses in the earlier attack.