Two people accused by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of selling a gun to Ryan Routh, the man who allegedly attempted to assassinate U.S. President Donald Trump at a Florida golf club last year, have pleaded guilty to weapons charges.
Tina Brown Cooper entered a guilty plea for firearm trafficking on Monday at a federal court in North Carolina after being indicted in March and arrested in April, according to CBS.
The second suspect, Ronnie Jay Oxendine, pleaded guilty in June to possessing an illegal firearm after police discovered a shotgun in his storage unit, the U.S. outlet added.
In court documents filed as part of the pair’s plea agreements, the DOJ said Cooper acted as a middleman between Oxendine — her employer at the time — and Routh to facilitate the sale of the weapon.
Trump would-be assassin hid on Florida golf course for 12 hours
The filing says the trio met at the North Carolina roofing company where Oxendine and Cooper worked to complete the sale of the SKS rifle in August last year.
Routh allegedly paid Oxendine $350 for the weapon and Cooper $100 for helping to arrange the deal.
Court documents say Routh and Oxendine first met in the ’90s and that the pair both owned roofing companies and would occasionally cross paths, but were not friends.
The filing also says Cooper worked with Routh in the ’90s and early 2000s.
The documents also state that Oxendine said he thought he was selling the rifle to Cooper until the moment the exchange occurred; Oxendine later admitted to lying in an attempt to play down his role in the sale of the weapon, according to the filing.
Oxendine initially told agents he believed Cooper was going to give the weapon to her grandson, and that she told him she did not want to divulge the true nature of the sale because she believed Oxendine would not agree to it.
About six weeks after the sale, Routh was apprehended by police following the assassination attempt on Trump.
According to an affidavit from Sept. 16, 2024, Trump was golfing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., a day earlier when a U.S. Secret Service officer noticed what appeared to be a rifle poking through the bushes.
The document says the agent fired their gun in the direction of the weapon and that a witness saw a male, later identified as Routh, fleeing with a rifle in a Nissan sports utility vehicle.
According to the DOJ filing, Oxendine said he learned of the assassination attempt from his sister and contacted Cooper to tell her about it, who he says advised him to deny any knowledge of it and to refuse to cooperate with the FBI. The filing also says Cooper intended to delete all her text messages relating to Routh.
Court filings say Cooper told “inconsistent stories” and told the FBI she deleted files from her phone to “avoid any involvement with the assassination attempt,” CBS reported.
Routh has been charged with attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and unlawful gun possession due to a 2002 weapons conviction, CBS reported.
Though no one was injured, the episode marked the second attempt on Trump’s life in as many months, raising questions about the security provided to him during a time of amped-up political rhetoric and what the Secret Service chief called an “unprecedented and hyper-dynamic threat environment.”
The incident came just weeks after a July 13, 2024 shooting at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in which Trump was wounded by a gunman’s bullet.
Trump shooter identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks
A barrage of gunfire set off a panic at the rally, and a bloodied Trump, who said he was shot in the ear, was surrounded by Secret Service and hurried to his SUV as he pumped his fist in a show of defiance.
One attendee was killed and two spectators were critically injured, authorities said. All were identified as men.
The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue, was also killed by the Secret Service that day.
The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
— With files from The Associated Press