(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The State Department released records about Ryan Routh on Wednesday, showing that he was under investigation prior to his Sept. 15, 2024, assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
As has been widely reported, Routh went to Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded in early 2022, and he worked on recruiting foreign fighters—including Afghans and Syrians—to the Ukrainian warfighting effort. Routh was reported to numerous government agencies, including the State Department, over his activities.
The State Department released documents Wednesday proving that would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh was under investigation for violating arms trafficking rules–likely related to his efforts to recruit foreign fighters to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/mJyWdgQQuL
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) January 2, 2026
The State Department documents released Wednesday include a Nov. 7, 2023, email from its Political-Military Unit Chief in the Kyiv Embassy, asking a research librarian for a copy of a March 2023 New York Times article detailing Routh’s efforts. The librarian responded the same day with a copy of the article, in which Routh reportedly told the Times that he “planned to move [Afghan soldiers], in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine.”
It’s not clear what the Political-Military Unit Chief did with that article. The next State Department email related to the Routh investigation didn’t come until more than nine months later, when another department official asked for a “Clearance Request: Directed Disclosure letter for Ryan Routh” on Aug. 27, 2024. That email is entirely redacted, again making it unclear what exactly the department was investigating.
When Routh tried killing Trump less than three weeks later—a Secret Service agent spotted him in the bushes with a rifle at Trump’s Palm Beach golf course—an apparent State Department security contractor expressed what many online observers were thinking: Was Routh a government asset?
“Nothing says ‘groomed by the Feds’ as a nut that is repeatedly ‘not jailed’ for serious crimes and is an avid ‘ActBlue’ donor,” said a State Department Worldwide Protective Service security specialist, whose name is redacted—referring to Routh’s criminal history and his donations to the pro-Democrat Political Action Committee. “I wonder if Vegas has odds on him committing Arkancide in jail?”
Additionally, the State Department responded to the assassination attempt by circulating an email with the subject line “Summary of DTCC Investigation of Ryan Routh.” Yet again, the entire body of the email is redacted.
DTCC is the acronym for Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, which investigates violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
According to that agency’s website, “When DTCC identifies potential criminal violations of the AECA and ITAR, the office works closely with law enforcement to respond. In particular, DTCC has close working relationships with Homeland Security Investigations (part of the Department of Homeland Security) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
I wonder who got Ryan Routh's X account suspended? Page 8.
New FOIA dump: https://t.co/xfu1gthDYK* pic.twitter.com/qckGmIJfaW
— Katica 🇺🇸 (@GOPPollAnalyst) December 31, 2025
While it’s unclear what Routh was specifically being investigated for, the Wall Street Journal reported in September 2024 that he was first reported to Customs and Border Protection in June 2022, and then the State Department, FBI and Interpol in 2023.
Chelsea Walsh, a nurse who knew Routh in Ukraine, first reported him to CBP in 2022. She again reported him to the FBI and Interpol in 2023, after she heard that was attempting to recruit Syrian refugees to fight in Ukraine.
However, those reports may not have been the impetus for an investigation. Routh himself wrote to the State Department in October 2023, seeking to collaborate on his efforts to recruit foreign fighters.
“Dear Bridget Brink, I, Ryan Routh, would like to respectfully ask why we cannot work one on one to pursue the Afghan soldier project?” Routh wrote to Brink, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine at the time.
According to Just the News, CBP interviewed Routh when he retured to the U.S. from a trip in 2023. Routh told agents that he had been recruiting as many as 100 foreign fighters from Taiwan, Afghanistan and Moldova to join Ukraine’s war against Russia. Routh was then referred to the DHS’s investigatory arm, Homeland Security Investigations, but no further action was taken.
In September 2024, HSI Director Katrina Berger defended her agency’s decision to ignore Routh.
“Based on information I read, there wouldn’t be any reason to take him immediately into custody. He didn’t make threats to the President or the former President, for instance,” she said at a congressional hearing.
Routh was convicted in September of trying to kill Trump. He faces sentencing in February.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
