Gregg Jarrett slams Secret Service failures in DOJ’s ‘strongest’ case against Routh

Legal analyst Gregg Jarrett called out the Secret Service Friday evening on Fox Business over what he said were its failures to prevent President Donald Trump’s alleged attempted assassin Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, in Florida last year.

In September 2024, Routh was formally charged by federal prosecutors for attempting to assassinate Trump, then a major political candidate. Routh appeared in Palm Beach County’s federal court Friday morning, with his defense lawyers saying they want to test the rifle found in Routh’s possession to check if it “is even operable.”

On “The Bottom Line,” the hosts asked Jarrett about the pushback from Routh’s defense attorneys. Jarrett said that, regardless of the weapon not being used, Routh pointed a gun at Trump.

“The key question is, you know, he’s aiming a gun at the president of the United States. He’s armed and loaded and stays there all night to get a good position on the president,” Jarrett said. “You know, this is among the strongest.”

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“But about this report, we already know there was a colossal failure by the Secret Service, incompetence mixed with idiocy. You had neophyte agents put in charge of advanced planning. Are you kidding me? Nobody knew what their jobs were. The entry points were porous, line of sight and protected. This was totally preventable,” Jarrett said.

The Secret Service came under fire in July 2024 after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired multiple shots into the president’s Pennsylvania rally, killing 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, injuring two additional crowd members, and injuring Trump’s ear. With questions arising regarding the Secret Service’s failures, then-agency Director Kimberly Cheatle, during a House Oversight Committee hearing, was unable to name who was “ultimately responsible” for the security plans on July 13.

Just two months after the first attack against Trump, Routh’s rifle barrel was spotted poking out of a bush while Trump was golfing in West Palm Beach, Fla. In addition to Routh’s charge of attempted assassination, the Department of Justice added charges of assaulting a federal officer and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, along with two previous gun charges.

“Now, fortunately, Trump has installed a new director to clean up their act. So that’ll happen. It’s already happening,” Jarrett said. “The president will finally get his eyes on the full report [of what happened] next week. He’s inclined, he says, to release it to the public. He absolutely should, because Americans deserve a complete accounting, warts and all.”

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