"The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin," Governor Ron DeSantis declared late yesterday. He likely means both would-be assassins, since we still know precious little about Thomas Matthew Crooks, who wounded Trump and two other people and killed Corey Comperatore before getting shot to death by a local police sniper. In fact, we've barely heard anything about Crooks, either from law enforcement or the media, since that day in Butler County, PA.

DeSantis wants to make sure that Ryan Wesley Routh stays in the news:

The State of Florida will be conducting its own investigation regarding the attempted assassination at Trump International Golf Club.

The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP…

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) September 16, 2024

That may take some major intervention. An assassination attempt on a former president is a federal crime, and usually the FBI and Department of Justice get primacy even when state laws apply. The FBI declared almost immediately that they consider Routh to have intended to assassinate Trump, giving them jurisdiction:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is already investigating the event as an attempted assassination. The episode took place on Sunday afternoon at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach. Secret Service spotted a man — identified by law enforcement as Ryan Wesley Routh — with an AK-47-style rifle hiding in the bushes, between 300 and 400 yards away from the president. The man fled when agents opened fire, according to local and federal authorities. 

Routh ran to a Nissan parked nearby and was detained shortly after on I-95 as he entered Martin County, just north of Palm Beach County, law enforcement officials said.

DeSantis has assigned this to the two state law-enforcement agencies at his command. The Department of Law Enforcement, which is the equivalent of what other states call a Bureau of Investigation, and the Highway Patrol. The latter took Routh into custody, apparently, after pulling over his vehicle while Routh tried to flee. The question will be how much cooperation and coordination the FDLE and FHP will get from the FBI and especially the DoJ. Even without the political overtones, the DoJ does not have a great reputation for playing well with other law-enforcement agencies when jurisdictions overlap. 

Even if the DoJ pulls rank and tries to shine Florida on, DeSantis' announcement and investigation will keep pressure on Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray. DeSantis can force the two of them to respond by speaking out about what his investigators can find on their own, and that will force the media to cover the story. When was the last time we got an update on Crooks and his background, communications, and potential connections to others?

Meanwhile, we are still learning more about Routh. At the Free Press, Tanya Lukyanova recalls that she interviewed the alleged would-be assassin last year, for Semafor's report on Americans traveling to Ukraine to fight. Lukyanova tells Oliver Wiseman that she thought Routh was "crazy," but mostly harmless -- at that time, anyway:

Back then, “he was just a harmless loon, who didn’t do anything too crazy.” (Though not totally harmless: records indicate a long list of run-ins with the law in North Carolina, including a 2002 conviction for possessing a fully automatic machine gun.)

But Routh hardly seemed a career criminal to Tanya. “He reminds me of Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading, if I am completely honest,” said Tanya, referring to the Cohen Brothers’ black comedy and its protagonist—a bumbling, dim-witted personal trainer who attempts to blackmail a CIA analyst. “A guy who is overzealous and goes a little overboard on the conspiratorial side of things. But until he does something terribly wrong, nobody quite thinks of him that way. 

“Ryan Routh wasn’t a story, until he allegedly went to Trump’s golf course with a gun.”

That 2002 conviction wasn't the only blemish on Routh's record:

After the 2002 arrest, authorities said they found the suspect in possession of a fully automatic machine gun, according to the Greensboro News & Record. The arrest coincides with North Carolina criminal court records that include Routh's conviction for possession of a weapon of mass destruction.

Records also show convictions for carrying a concealed weapon, possession of stolen property and hit-and-run. In those cases, which included misdemeanor convictions for violations such as resisting an officer and driving on a suspended license, the defendant received a suspended sentence and parole or probation. ...

Court records show more than 100 criminal counts have been filed against Ryan Routh in North Carolina, most in Guilford County, which underlies Greensboro. The exact outcome of each case was not immediately clear.

In other words, Routh clearly wasn't "harmless" at all. That raises questions about how Routh managed to get his hands on an AK-47, or an "AK-47 style" rifle, as it's been called in some media reports. If he had a previous firearms conviction, Routh should not have been able to purchase any rifle or pistol. 

Some of this is purportedly news to Routh's son Oran, who claims his father has never owned a gun, but hates Trump:

He said his father hates Trump as 'every reasonable person does.

‘I don't like Trump either,’ the son added.

But he said his dad is not a violent person and couldn't believe his father would target the president.

'He's my dad and all he's had is couple traffic tickets, as far as I know,' the son said. 'That's crazy. I know my dad and love my dad, but that's nothing like him.' ... 

Asked whether his father owned a gun, he replied, 'Not that I know of.

'I've never known him to own a gun or known him to do anything bats*** like this,' the son added.

Maybe he doesn't know his father quite as well as he thinks. The Daily Mail report explains that they have been somewhat estranged for a while, but the son apparently has no idea about his father's extensive track record with law enforcement. 

We will be finding out plenty in the days to come, of course. And if it doesn't play well for the media narratives, expect it to get buried -- which is why DeSantis has put everyone on notice that they will make sure it all comes out, whether the DoJ or the media like it.