The Justice Department has accused two individuals of selling a rifle to Ryan Routh, the suspect in the attempted assassination of President Trump at his Florida golf club last year. According to CBS News, two defendants, Tina Brown Cooper and Ronnie Jay Oxendine, pleaded guilty to gun-related charges in federal court. They were indicted in March and arrested in April. “Cooper pleaded guilty to firearm trafficking on Monday, and Oxendine pleaded guilty last month to possessing an unregistered firearm after police found a short-barreled shotgun in his storage building,” CBS News stated. BREAKING: The Department of Justice has charged two people for selling a rifle to Ryan Routh, the man who tried to assassinate President Trump. — ALX (@alx) July 9, 2025 More info from CBS News: In court papers filed in both cases as part of the plea agreements, the Justice Department said the two sold Routh a Chinese-made SKS rifle in August, with Cooper allegedly acting as a middleman in a sale between Routh and Oxendine. Law enforcement said Cooper worked for Oxendine at the time of the sale at a roofing company in Greensboro, North Carolina. Federal prosecutors alleged Cooper, Routh and Oxendine met at the roofing company’s headquarters, where Routh paid Oxendine $350 cash for the SKS rifle and $100 to Cooper for helping to arrange the sale. About six weeks later, Routh was allegedly found with an SKS-style rifle outside Mr. Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach — though prosecutors did not specify if it was the same gun as the one Oxendine and Cooper allegedly sold. Neither of the defendants told law enforcement they had any advance knowledge of Routh’s alleged plans. Routh has been charged with attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and unlawful gun possession, with prosecutors saying he was not allowed to own a firearm due to a prior 2002 weapons conviction. According to Newsweek, Routh is seeking to fire his public defenders. Ryan Routh, 59, has been charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course in September. https://t.co/0ORSFSLhGW — Newsweek (@Newsweek) July 9, 2025 Newsweek explained: In a motion filed on Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Route requested a hearing to terminate his defense team. Routh “respectfully requests the Court set a hearing to terminate the representation of his appointed counsel and their office,” the motion said. “Undersigned counsel suits that such a hearing should be conducted in camera and under seal to preserve attorney-client privileged information,” it continued. Prosecutors said Routh handwrote a note about his plans to kill Trump several months before his arrest. The note referred to his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 to anyone who could “finish the job.” The note was in a box that Routh had dropped off at the residence of an unidentified person months before his arrest, the Department of Justice said. After Routh’s arrest, that person contacted law enforcement. Prosecutors also said Routh kept a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was expected to appear.