Ryan Routh, the second alleged would-be assassin of President Donald Trump, told the Florida judge presiding over his case on Friday that he wants to offer himself to Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea as part of a prisoner exchange with one of the foreign adversaries.
Routh’s offer was shared in a letter he addressed to United States District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee.
“I had wished for a prisoner swap with Hamas, Iran for a female protester, or China for Jimmy Lai or one of the 40 others or to freeze to death in Siberia in exchange for a Ukrainian soldier so that I could die being of some use and save all this court mess, but no one acts,” he wrote to Cannon. “Perhaps you have the power to trade me away.”
Jimmy Lai is the jailed media tycoon and pro-democracy activist who protested Beijing’s national security crackdown on Hong Kong in 2019. The “40 others” Routh is likely referring to are the 47 pro-democracy figures arrested by Beijing in 2021 for organizing an unofficial primary election in Hong Kong.
Routh says his part in a prisoner swap would make sense for Trump, whose administration has prioritized the release of people wrongfully imprisoned, including the Israeli captives held by Hamas.
“What an easy diplomatic victory for Trump to give an American he hates to China, Iran, or North Korea, or wherever, as a gesture of peace in exchange for an unjustly held democratic prisoner,” he wrote. “Everyone wins.”
