One day after Trump's second would-be assassin was charged with two gun counts in federal court, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced via executive order Tuesday morning that those charges aren't enough because the alleged criminal should be "punished to the fullest extent of the law."
And the state of Florida—not the feds—are the ones who can deliver that justice, he believes, through an independent investigation to ensure a "transparency" that DeSantis doesn't think exists at the federal level.
"They're the same federal agencies that are seeking to prosecute Donald Trump leading this investigation," DeSantis said at a Tuesday press conference in West Palm Beach, where Trump was nearly assassinated for the second time in two months. "Do we honestly think these agencies are the best to turn around and do this investigation on a potential assassin?"
Appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with three obstruction counts and 37 felonies for alleged illegal handling of classified documents in January 2021. A year later, the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home (two years before would-be assassin Ryan Routh would camp out with a long gun outside the Mar-a-Lago golf course, laying in wait for the former President) which Trump declared to be a witch hunt and an attempt by President Joe Biden to have him killed.
The federal judge overseeing the case, appointed by Trump, threw out the case in July.
DeSantis, meanwhile, not only wants the 58-year-old Routh imprisoned for life for the attempted Sunday murder of Trump, but questions what "agenda" federal agencies may have, considering they are prosecuting Trump in two different jurisdictions that have "divided the country in big ways," he says.
"Don't you want to have investigative agencies that are just going to pursue this without any other agenda creeping in, without there being any cause for concern about any impartiality and, oh, by the way, that can bring the most serious, readily provable offense under state law, not under federal law?" DeSantis posited, referring to a possible loophole in federal statute protecting against assassinations of presidents and president-elects, but not former presidents or party nominees.
If murder or attempted murder charges are brought from the Justice Department, Congress must prove a jurisdictional basis for the charges. Florida law, meanwhile, is very straightforward: an individual who tries to kill another will be tried for attempted murder.
DeSantis continued, revealing that Trump is "in good spirits" and thinks Florida taking the lead is "totally appropriate." DeSantis also stressed that he has "no preconceived notions," but distrusts the federal government's ability to be "forthright" when it comes to serious investigations.
When Trump was nearly assassinated for the first time in Butler, Pennsylvania, a massive public outcry demanding to know how a shooter could surpass Secret Service and local law enforcement resulted in congressional hearings and two oversight committees to investigate the cloudy circumstances. The people, DeSantis said, never learned the "unvarnished truth".
The state-level investigation, which will cooperate with "all levels of government," DeSantis promised, will be headed up by a statewide prosecutor under Attorney General Ashley Moody, considering the failed assassin who tried to commit his crime in Palm Beach County was captured in Martin County and may have a "Broward connection" due to some expired or stolen car tags based out of the county.
Florida, he says, will host an investigation that will bring "justice" and expose the "truth."
