Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody appearing at FDLE headquarters in Tampa on July 18, 2023. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)Escalating a turf war with the Biden administration over the apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump in South Florida, Republican state Attorney General Ashley Moody is challenging the FBI’s assertion of control over the investigation.
Questioning whether the federal government could undertake a fair and objective investigation of the incident in Palm Beach County, Moody sent a letter Monday to FBI Director Christopher Wray, asking him to clarify whether the feds will allow Florida law enforcement to conduct their own, concurrent investigation or deny the state access to evidence and witnesses.
Law enforcement personnel continued to investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club on Sept. 16 after an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump a day earlier. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The wrangling emerged early last week following the arrest of Ryan Routh, observed by a Secret Service agent with a rifle in the bushes while Trump played golf at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15.
The agent fired at him and Routh fled but soon was arrested while traveling on I-95 in Martin County. The federal government has filed gun charges against him.
Two days later, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he thought it in the best interest of the state and the country for Florida to conduct its own criminal probe, citing what he called questions whether the federal government could conduct a fair investigation considering that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice are prosecuting Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and his alleged attempts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.
DeSantis asserted that, because Trump is not now a federal officer, only the state could pursue the higher charge of attempted murder.
Federal statute
According to Moody, the feds haven’t shown much interest in having the state conduct its own investigation, invoking a provision of federal law stating that “if Federal investigative or prosecutive jurisdiction is asserted for a violation of this section, such assertion shall suspend the exercise of jurisdiction by a State or local authority, under any applicable State or local law, until Federal action is terminated.”
Section 351 of Title 18, United States Code, makes it a federal offense to kill or kidnap a member of Congress, member-of-Congress elect, specified executive branch officials, a major presidential or vice presidential candidate, a justice of the Supreme Court, or a person nominated to be a justice. Attempts and conspiracies to commit such offenses or to assault any such individual are deemed federal crimes.
Moody in her letter wrote that, on two occasions in the past week, both Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the case, and Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, both referred to that section of law in thwarting Florida law enforcement officials seeking access to evidence and the crime scene.
“To avoid any misunderstanding between our agents, I write to advise you that the State of Florida does not believe this provision has been properly invoked,” Moody wrote in her letter, addressed to Wray and Lapointe.
Moody took a verbal shot at Veltri, writing “that the media and others have raised questions regarding his impartiality.”
Whistleblower’s claims
Moody was undoubtedly referring to stories published on conservative news sites such as Fox News last week that referred to an FBI whistleblower’s claims last year to the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI ordered Veltri to delete anti-Trump social media posts.
The FBI told Fox in a statement last week that the “reported allegations about political bias impacting decisions, the targeting of former military employees, and SAC Veltri’s social media accounts and posts are demonstrably false.”
In her letter, Moody pushes the idea that federal law enforcement agencies can’t be trusted to provide an impartial investigation.
“Given all the public scrutiny on the FBI, DOJ, and the Secret Service, one would think that having Florida conduct its own investigation alongside federal agencies would mitigate public concern regarding the credibility and reliability of these institutions and would be welcome by the federal government.”
This isn’t the first time in the past week that Florida officials have complained about the federal agencies.
“No, they’re not being cooperative,” DeSantis told Fox’ Laura Ingraham last week. “Yes, I am concerned. For example, we were rebuffed, our investigators were rebuffed, just going to the fence line outside of Trump International Golf Club.”
While Routh faces only federal gun charges so far, additional counts in an indictment are expected later this week after prosecutors put the case before a federal grand jury.
Moody has requested that the FBI and the Southern District of Florida to respond to her concerns by this Friday, Sept. 27.
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