Ex-AG Barr joins criticism of DOJ's release of Trump bounty letter: 'No apparent justification'

The Biden-Harris Justice Department's decision to release the solicitation letter of the alleged would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump drew widespread outrage on Monday, including from former Attorney General William Barr, who said it violated the department's longstanding rules about wannabe mass killers.

Ryan Routh, who faces federal charges in connection with an apparent assassination attempt against Trump earlier this month, wrote a note months prior, indicating his intentions to kill the GOP presidential nominee, according to a court filing released Monday.

"This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you," reads the handwritten letter. "I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job." 

The letter is part of the evidence federal prosecutors submitted in a hearing Monday to support keeping Routh detained pending trial. Routh has not been charged with attempted assassination. 

Barr, who served as attorney general during the Trump administration, blasted the DOJ for releasing the letter.

"I was dumbfounded that the DOJ made public this morning the contents of the letter that, Ryan Routh, left with an acquaintance prior to the attempted assassination of former President Trump," Barr told Fox News on Monday. 

"The letter calls on people to ‘finish the job’ of killing President Trump, attempts to rouse people in incendiary terms to do so, and offers $150,000 to anyone who succeeds," he continued. "There was no apparent justification for releasing this information at this stage."

He added that the "DOJ had more than enough evidence to have Routh detained pending trial, without publicizing these details."

"Even if DOJ thought it important to provide the letter to the court, it could have redacted inflammatory material or arranged to have the letter submitted under seal," Barr said. "It was rash to put out this letter in the midst of an election during which two attempts on the life of President Trump had been made."

"It served no purpose other than to risk inciting further violence," he remarked. 

Routh is allegedly the second attempted assassin of Trump, after Thomas Crooks shot Trump in the ear during a July rally in Buter, Pa. One man was killed and two others were injured during that shooting.

Trump's oldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., also criticized the release of the letter, saying it was dangerous.

“For the life of me, I do not understand why the Kamala-Biden DOJ is publicly releasing a letter from Ryan Wesley Routh announcing a $150,000 bounty on my dad’s head,” Trump, Jr., told The Daily Wire on Monday. “They’re putting his life even more at risk with this reckless decision.”

Others contrasted the DOJ's decision in Routh's case to its refusal to publicly release the manifesto of the transgender Nashville shooter.

"The same people who refused to show us the Covenant trans killer manifesto just released a bounty on President Trump for $150,000 by his would be assassin. Absolutely insane," conservative activist and former GOP congressional candidate Robby Starbuck posted on X on Monday.

In March 2023, Audrey Hale opened fire on a private Christian school in Tennessee, killing six people, including three children. Hale was born female, but identified as a man, and had written a manifesto before the shooting.

The FBI had rejected multiple Freedom of Information Act requests for Hale's manifesto that The Tennessee Star submitted last year. Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of the media outlet, sued the FBI over the rejected requests in May 2023. This past April, the FBI turned over Hale's writings to a federal judge, including the manifesto, to be read privately by the judge. 

Michael Seifert, CEO of PublicSquare, also reacted to the DOJ's decisions over releasing information to the public.

"How exactly are we supposed to read the fact that the DOJ hid the Nashville shooter manifesto for a year and refused GOP subpoenas to get the Hur tapes but immediately released a letter from Trump's attempted assassin putting a $150K bounty on his head other than they just want him dead?" Seifert wrote on X.