Yeah, A New Warren Commission Seems Like A Good Idea

The photo above is alleged wannabe assassin Ryan Routh on a 2023 trip to Washington to meet with diplomats and such. Note the understated outfits, the How-to-Dress-for-Success ties. The guy looks like he's just driven in from Bethesda, but he has a criminal record and works as a roofer in Hawaii. Somebody got him tricked out pretty well for this visit, huh? How'd that happen? That's just one of the questions I have about this whole story.

Let's recall that just a few weeks ago,

Donald Trump said he would release “all of the remaining documents pertaining to the assassination of John F Kennedy” if he were elected president in November, as part of a proposed new commission on presidential assassination attempts, including the one that targeted him.

Well, of course, cross out the "one" that targeted him and, at least for now, insert "two". Meanwhile, the same FBI that is said to have promised a report on the investigation of the first attempt within 60 days is now assiduously investigating the second. At least Gov DeSantis says Florida will do a separate investigation, so there's hope. I doubt we'll ever get a full picture unless Trump is elected in November.

The data points we see are troubling. The perp, Ryan Wesley Routh,

has an extensive criminal history in North Carolina that includes convictions between 2002 and 2010 of felony possession of weapons of mass destruction and possession of stolen goods and misdemeanors carrying a concealed gun, hit and run and resisting law enforcement, among other charges. Routh states on LinkedIn that he has moved to Hawaii.

. . . He’s also known to have worked for United Roofing. It was there he fled Greensboro police in 2002 after a traffic stop and, with a gun in his hand, barricaded himself inside the business, according to The News & Record. He had a fully automatic machine gun, the newspaper reported. Routh was interviewed in 2022 by Newsweek Romania and in 2023 by The New York Times for helping to recruit civilian volunteers to help Ukraine fight in the war against Russia.

. . . Trump’s schedule Sunday was not public, and it’s not clear how the attempted assassin knew where he would be.

Elsewhere,

Records show Routh's issues with the law go back to the 1990s and include lesser charges of writing bad checks. But in 2002 he was charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction, a felony, according to North Carolina Department of Corrections records. In another incident, he was charged with misdemeanors, including a hit-and-run offense, resisting arrest, and a concealed weapons violation, the records show.

Although he was charged with a felony, this account doesn't mentioon the disposition of the case. This link says he received probation. Had he been convicted, it would have been illegal for him to possess the rifle he left at the scene at the golf course. But while he was a dangerous guy, he seems to have had high-level Washington contacts:

In a telephone interview with the [New York] Times in 2023, when Routh was in Washington, he spoke with a self-assurance of a seasoned diplomat who thought his plans to support Ukraine’s war effort were sure to succeed. But he appeared to have little patience for anyone who got in his way. When an American foreign fighter seemed to talk down to him in a Facebook message he shared with the Times, Routh said, “He needs to be shot.”

In the interview, Routh said he was in Washington to meet with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission “for two hours” to help push for more support for Ukraine. The commission is led by members of Congress and staffed by congressional aides. It is influential on matters of democracy and security and has been vocal in supporting Ukraine.

And CNN confirms the mention in one of the links above that the golf outing wasn't on Trump's public schedule:

Former President Donald Trump’s golf game on Sunday was a last-minute addition to his schedule, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Trump had no public events on his schedule for Sunday.

What adds to the puzzle is how Routh, on such apparent short notice, was able to scout a potential location for his attempt. This map is from the New York Post:

Knowledgeable observers note that the Trump National course is lsrgely out of sight from local highways, and the spot Routh chose is one of the few available for such an attempt. As a retired FBI assistant director said to Newsweerk:

"The biggest question to answer is: 'How did the would-be assassin know to be at that location at that time?'" he said. "There are only three possible answers: He guessed and got very lucky; he conducted surveillance on Trump and followed him to the golf course or he had inside information about Trump's schedule.

"The last answer is scary and has implications that another person was involved."

By the way, Routh lives in Hawaii -- what was he doing im West Palm Beach? How long had he been there? He owned a small business that built sheds. Who paid for his trip to Florida? How did he get the AK-47 style rifle with an apparent felony cnnviction on his record? Who dressed him like a member of the political class for his 2023 trip to Washington, when his background was as a roofer and petty crook?

While this is a fast-moving story, I have a feeling we won't be getting answers to these and other questions any time soon, if ever.