The more Chelsea Walsh talked to the eccentric fellow American who seemed to pop up in every square and cobblestone street of Ukraine's capital, the more she got creeped out. Walsh was in Kyiv as a nurse and aid worker early in the war in Ukraine. Ryan Routh was there to recruit foreign soldiers to fight the Russians, the AP reports. But Walsh never saw him make much progress and instead watched him grow increasingly angry and unhinged, kicking a panhandler, threatening to burn down a music studio that slighted him, and speaking of his own children with seething hatred.
Just as troubling, she said, was Routh's obsessive, oddly specific plotting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, describing the various explosives, poisons, and cross-border maneuvers that Routh would employ "to kill him in his sleep." She recalled telling US Customs and Border Protection officials, in an airport interview upon returning to the US in June 2022, that Routh was a time bomb. She says she later repeated her concerns in separate tips to both the FBI and Interpol. "There is one person you need to watch," she said. "And that is Ryan Routh." Walsh says she never heard from the agencies and didn't think much more about Routh until she saw him in the news last Sunday as the 58-year-old accused of stalking Donald Trump at the former president's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in an apparent assassination attempt.
Walsh's account was one of at least four reports to the federal government that, while not direct threats to Trump, raised suspicions about Routh in the years leading up to his arrest, per the AP. Others included a tip to the FBI in 2019 about Routh being in possession of a firearm after a felony conviction, an online report by an aid worker to the State Department last year questioning Routh's military recruiting tactics, and Routh's own interview with Customs and Border Protection about those efforts, prompting a referral for a possible inquiry by Homeland Security Investigations.
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What was done in response that could have stopped Routh or at least put him under greater scrutiny is not clear. The agencies involved did not respond to queries from the AP, have no record of such a report, or had questions about whether investigation was warranted. But some people are asking whether agencies are vigilant enough or even equipped to deal with a growing number of potential threats brought to their attention. "Federal agencies ought to be on the highest alert to detect and combat these threats," said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. "Congress and the American people need assurance that the federal government is doing all it can." Walsh, who lives a few miles from Trump's golf course, said she cannot help but think all of this could have been avoided. "The authorities have definitely dropped the ball on this," she said. "They were warned."
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