Prosecutors want to charge man with attempted murder. They would have to prove the following

CNN
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As the U.S. Justice Department prepares to indict the man who allegedly plotted to shoot Donald Trump while he was golfing, a federal prosecutor said his team was focused on a particular charge: the attempted murder of a key presidential candidate.

On Monday, prosecutor Mark Dispoto said in court that the Justice Department would pursue the charges under Section 351 of Title 18 of the United States Code. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in a federal prison.

Prosecutors have already charged Ryan Wesley Routh with two weapons offenses, and a federal judge on Monday ordered him detained pending further proceedings. He has not yet pleaded guilty.

The attempted murder charge is “fairly rare,” according to Andrew McCabe, a senior law enforcement analyst at CNN and former deputy FBI director, but it has been used in other high-profile attempted murder cases, such as that of a man accused of driving to Brett Kavanaugh's Maryland home with a gun, burglary tools and other equipment in an apparent attempt to endanger the Supreme Court justice's life.

To prove their case, prosecutors would have to convince the jury that Routh took concrete steps to carry out an assassination attempt on the former president. They would likely point to evidence already presented in court, including a letter Routh allegedly wrote to The World that said, “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you. I tried my best and mustered all my courage. It is now up to you to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whoever finishes the job.”

Former Justice Department national security prosecutor David Aaron told CNN that despite prosecutors' revelations, it may be difficult for the Justice Department to convince a jury that Routh actually tried to kill Trump because he never fired a shot.

“It's not quite as clear-cut as other cases,” Aaron said, where “someone shoots at someone and misses.” Instead, prosecutors must convince the jury that Routh's other alleged steps — getting a gun and loading it, knowing where Trump would be, hiding right next to the golf course and waiting for his target to come into view for several hours — are enough to prove he intended to commit an assassination attempt.

“If you shot and missed, that's a much better, a much easier case,” McCabe said, adding that prosecutors “don't have solid evidence of the attempt because they don't have that shot.”

“What they have is circumstantial evidence,” he said. “You can convict someone on circumstantial evidence, but if you're going to do it that way, you want a lot of it. You want to bombard the jury with every little thing this guy did that can only be interpreted one way.”

The federal law also contains a provision that, if charges are filed, could automatically bar Florida from bringing proceedings against Routh. That section says state investigators and prosecutors “shall suspend their jurisdiction … until the federal proceedings are concluded.” It's not entirely clear how that provision applies in this case, Aaron said, adding that state and federal authorities often work together on investigations.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said last week that the state “will conduct its own investigation into the attempted assassination at Trump International Golf Club.” Routh has not yet been charged in state court.

If convicted of the federal charges, Routh could face life in prison, although the sentence would depend on the judge presiding over his case.

McCabe said the prosecutors' decision to bring this serious charge was important, both because of the potentially severe sentence and the “symbolic significance” of bringing an attempted murder charge against someone accused of trying to kill the former president and current Republican presidential candidate.

“I think the perception of what they do is a factor and something that [prosecutors and investigators] try to deal with it,” McCabe said. “I mean, they're going to put forward the best case they can. They're not going to charge somebody if they think they can't prove it, but I think it's important to charge him with attempted murder.”

CNN's Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.