Did Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refuse to turn over alleged Trump gunman Ryan Wesley Routh to the FBI? No, that's not true: Jail records on September 17, 2024, showed that a Ryan Wesley Routh of the same age as the suspected gunman was housed at the Miami Federal Detention Center. Prosecutors filed two federal charges against Routh on September 16, 2024.
The claim about Gov. DeSantis and Routh appeared in a post on X (archived here) on September 16, 2024. It began:
Breaking: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis REFUSES to hand Trump shooting suspect Ryan Routh over to the Feds. Routh was arrested by local Florida PD while fleeing on I-95. The FBI has DEMANDED custody of him but DeSantis refused, saying Florida will conduct its own investigation.
This is how the post on X appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Sep 17 1:04:00 2024 UTC)
A Secret Service agent spotted "what appeared to be a rifle" near the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15, 2024. Florida law enforcement agencies arrested Routh later the same day.
Routh appeared in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on September 16, 2024, for arraignment on two federal charges: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
He is being held at the Miami Federal Detention Center, as his listing below from the Federal Bureau of Prisons shows.
(Source: Federal Bureau of Prisons screenshot taken on Tues Sep 17 16:28:17 2024 UTC)
In a post on his official X account on September 15, 2024, Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis announced that state authorities would conduct their own investigation into the incident that day at the Trump International Golf Club.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Trump assassination attempts can be read here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about the 2024 election can be read here.
