Suspected Trump assassin flagged by U.S. during return from Ukraine, but Homeland refused probe

Ryan Routh, the suspected Donald Trump assassin, was interviewed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials when he returned from Ukraine last year and flagged for further investigation based on spontaneous comments he made to agents, but the Homeland Security Department declined to act, Just the News has confirmed.

The June 2023 encounter with Routh at the Honolulu airport is confirmed in U.S. border entry records reviewed by Just the News and is latest tale of missed law enforcement opportunities dating 2019 to stop or further investigation the alleged would-be assassin.

The records show that CBP officials knew that Routh had traveled to Warsaw, Poland, near the Ukraine border, and to Istanbul, Turkey, in 2022 and 2023 and had admitted in his interview that he had been recruiting as many as 100 foreign fighters from Taiwan, Afghanistan and Moldova to join Ukraine's war against the Russian invasion.

Routh even gave U.S. agents who interviewed him a business card that portrayed him as the director of a group called the "International Volunteer Center" that also claimed to have contact in Syria, Pakistan and Israel. He also described who had underwritten his efforts to recruit foreigners to assist Kyiv.

“Subject is a USC who had traveled to Kiev, Ukraine for 3 months to help recruit Soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova, and Taiwan, to fight in the Ukrainian war against Russia,” the CBP interview notes of Routh state.

“Subject stated that he does not get paid for his recruiting efforts and all his work for the Ukrainian government is strictly volunteer work Subject provided his recruiting business card (cards have been uploaded into the event) which list his recruiting partners that he speaks with to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Romanian, Pakistan, Syria, and Israel,” the note added. "Subject stated that he obtains money from his wife to help fund his trips to Ukraine."

The memo stated that the Ukraine advocate was referred to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the lead investigative organ of the Homeland Security Department, but the division declined to pursue the matter.

“HSI was contacted and refused the case,” the interview memo stated. 

Homeland Security officials referred Just the News to the FBI when reached out to for comment Tuesday. 

The CBP memos add to a body of evidence showing federal law enforcement had multiple moments where suspicious were raised about Routh long before Secret Service agents spotted him Sunday with an AK-47 at a Florida golf course in what authorities said was an apparent  assassination attempt on Trump.

Routh was flagged in 2019 and was under suspicion for possessing a firearm while a felon, FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri of the Miami Field Office revealed on Monday.

Also, a nurse that interacted with Routh while she was volunteering in Ukraine told the Wall Street Journal she reported Routh to USCBP on her return from the country in June 2022. 

The CPB memos show agents flagged his foreign travel and reported contacts with individuals in several countries to recruit fighters for the war in Ukraine. 

According to the records, Routh provided border protection agents with a card for his purported International Volunteer Center in Ukraine. The business card lists his alleged partners across the globe in his effort to recruit fighters for Ukraine. 

A current organization with that name exists in Ukraine, but the International Volunteer Center said it was formed after Routh’s reported return to the United States in summer 2023. 

“We have been officially registered as an organization in Ukraine since October 2023. Prior to the recent developments, none of us had any knowledge of Mr. Routh or any other entity named the International Volunteer Center, aside from our own registered organization,” the center said, according to the New York Post. “We presume Mr. Routh has not established any organization with the name International Volunteer Center in Ukraine.”

Chelsea Walsh, a nurse who volunteered in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2022, claims she told Border Protection agents about several encounters she had with Routh in the country when she returned to Washington’s Dulles airport one year before Routh’s interview in Honolulu. She told authorities she suspected Routh was dangerous and exhibited “Overall Predatory Behavior (or antisocial traits),” according to her notebook that she shared with the Wall Street Journal. 

The immigration records reviewed by Just the News show that Routh traveled to Europe two times between April 2022 and June 2023. 

During the first trip, Routh left the United States from Los Angeles, bound for Warsaw. He returned to the U.S. in September via Amsterdam. Several months later, Routh departed for Istanbul in March 2023 and returned to Honolulu in June 2023 via Japan. 

Routh’s foreign travel to Ukraine and plans to recruit ex-Afghan soldiers to fight against Russia all likely put Routh in the crosshairs of other U.S. intelligence agencies, Just the News previously reported. 

Jeff Danik, a 28-year veteran of the FBI, said based on his experience asking what information those other agencies already know about Routh would be one of the first tasks in any investigation.

“So an American traipsing around in that battleground is going to perceive focus, I would be shocked if one of the intelligence agencies didn't have his devices compromised,” he said. “All that data and collection is going to be classified, of course, but my question is, does it even exist? Do we know who he was contacting?” 

Routh’s rebranding into a Ukraine advocate and self-proclaimed recruiter of foreign fighters followed a decades-long criminal record in his home city of Greensboro, North Carolina, where he was charged with several crimes, including felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction—a machine gun—according to court records, Just the News reported Monday.