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By Lori Rozsa, The Washington Post (c) 2024
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is skeptical the federal government will appropriately handle the investigation into the apparent assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump, so he has assigned state officers to “take the lead” and do their own work on the case.
He also has directed the statewide prosecutor – who usually takes cases involving drugs, cyber fraud, human trafficking and other organized crimes that cross multiple counties – to bring charges against the man suspected of pointing a gun through a fence at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club on Sunday.
Some legal experts and political analysts say the unusual step by a governor to try to run a parallel investigation into a matter of national security amounts to nothing more than political grandstanding that could cause confusion rather than help.
“At the minimum, it can be seen as an attempt to influence the investigation, thereby breaching the firewall that should separate the law and politics in a democracy,” said Anthony V. Alfieri, a professor at the University of Miami and director of the law school’s Center for Ethics and Public Service.
The move by DeSantis to assign the statewide prosecutor fits a pattern that has emerged in recent years, in which critics say the governor employs certain law enforcement agencies to carry out his political agenda. The statewide prosecutor is the same office that was tasked with prosecuting those charged by DeSantis’s election police unit. Many of those charges were initially dismissed, before DeSantis pushed lawmakers to grant the statewide prosecutor jurisdiction over the cases.
Lawyers including Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg are also questioning the practicality of moving a state probe forward.
“How will the investigators get the evidence in this case?” Aronberg asked in an interview with The Washington Post. “They’re going to have to get it from the same federal investigators and federal prosecutors that they distrust, because the federal investigators are the ones collecting the evidence.”
DeSantis said Tuesday that he was launching a state probe because he wants to ensure a fair and transparent investigation, which he said Florida agencies were in a better position to accomplish because the FBI and Justice Department are separately pursuing unrelated criminal cases against Trump. The governor also asserted that the state can pursue harsher crimes than federal authorities, saying that under Florida law, Ryan Wesley Routh could be charged with attempted murder and be put away for life.
“In my judgment, it’s not in the best interest of our state or nation to have the same federal agencies that are seeking to prosecute Donald Trump leading this investigation,” DeSantis said during a news conference.
The Department of Justice declined to comment on DeSantis’s probe, but Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a public event Tuesday that the Justice Department is working with state and local law enforcement to investigate the incident. FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said Wednesday that “the full force of the FBI” is dedicated to the investigation.
“Together, we’re working around the clock to investigate this,” he said.
It’s unclear what additional work state investigators can do while the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service continue their probe. Agents spent days examining the towering hedge and fence line that surrounds the Trump International Golf Club, concentrating on collecting evidence from the area where they say Routh apparently lay in wait for Trump. That evidence includes Routh’s phone, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope, two bags and food, according to a federal complaint.
Authorities said at least one of Routh’s bags also contained ceramic plates, which are often used as body armor.
The criminal complaint filed by the FBI against Routh at his first appearance Monday charged him with two crimes: possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Those charges carry a maximum of five and 15 years in prison, but Routh could face more serious charges later in the investigation, depending on what evidence authorities gather about his motive, actions or intent. A federal judge ruled that Routh will remain in custody on those charges pending a formal indictment.
Aronberg said that he deferred to the federal investigating agencies to take the lead and that his office “does not engage in turf wars.” He also noted that federal statutes carry a punishment of up to life in prison for anyone convicted of attempting to kill a presidential candidate, and he said he believes that more federal charges are likely.
“There are many examples of state and federal authorities working together on a case, but not many where there is a parallel investigation because the state proclaims that the federal government is compromised,” Aronberg said. “It is a sad sign of our times that the governor of the third-largest state in the country does not trust the federal prosecutors or federal law enforcement to do the right thing in this case.”
DeSantis’s office did not return a request for comment on his assertionthat federal authorities could not pursue more serious charges than the state.
It remains unclear how the two separate law enforcement probes would work. The Palm Beach sheriff attended Tuesday’s news conference and said his office would provide “all the information” that is needed for the state probe. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles division are also expected to lead the investigation.
The FDLE is charged with protecting the governor and investigating major crimes. But a Post review of court documents found DeSantis has increasingly deployed the FDLE outside its traditional portfolio in support of his own political agenda. That included an assignment laying the groundwork for the governor’s transportation of migrants from the Texas border to Martha’s Vineyardin 2022.
The head of the FDLE and the Florida Highway Patrol both attended Tuesday’s news conference and voiced their support for the probe.
Attorney General Ashley Moody, who oversees the statewide prosecutor’s office, said the state’s investigation “doesn’t mean it’s a turf war,” but a “dual track.” She backed up DeSantis’s assertion that an investigation separate from the FBI and Secret Service is necessary for “trust and transparency.”
“It is awkward, to say the least, to have a prosecutorial agency and an investigatory agency that is bringing charges and seeking to put the victim away for life, being the same agency and prosecutors that are going after the would-be assassin,” Moody said.
But Alfieri,the legal scholar, said the Routh case does not fit the jurisdictional requirements for cases handled by the statewide prosecutor. That office, he said, investigates and prosecutes crimes that occur in two or more judicial circuits as part of a “related transaction” or as an “organized criminal conspiracy.”
“This authority enables the statewide prosecutor to pursue criminal enterprises that operate across the geographical borders of multiple judicial circuits and counties, for example, Palm Beach and Broward counties,” he said. “However, it does not give the statewide prosecutor exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute crimes that span multiple counties.”
He added: “Nothing in the Ryan Routh case presents a compelling legal or policy rationale for statewide criminal prosecution. To the contrary, statewide prosecution opens the door for defense counsel to claim that the state lacked jurisdiction to prosecute Routh and, moreover, entitles Routh to a factual hearing to determine the prosecutor’s jurisdiction.”
Florida political analyst Aubrey Jewett said DeSantis may be making a political calculation at the same time he is demanding a thorough and transparent investigation.
“He has had national aspirations. He ran for president and lost to Trump,” said Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. “Perhaps this is a way to score some political points with the Republican base.”
DeSantis said that he talked over his plan with Trump on the phone and that the Republican presidential candidate was pleased.
“He was complimentary of the state of Florida taking the lead,” DeSantis said. “He thought that was totally appropriate, and he encouraged us to continue doing what we’re doing.”
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Perry Stein and Mark Berman contributed to this report.
