Trump’s alleged killer’s son charged over child abuse images

Oran Routh was arrested on suspicion of possessing and receiving child pornography on the same day his father, Ryan Routh, was charged with attempted murder of former President Donald Trump.

*Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images*

As Ryan Routh facing mounting allegations Following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course earlier this month, his adult son has been arrested in connection with a very different set of alleged offenses.

Oran Routh, 35, was charged Monday in federal court in North Carolina with receiving and possessing child sexual abuse images. court documents showThe next day he was arrested.

An FBI special agent laid out the basis for the charges in a four-page criminal complaint, explaining that the FBI searched Oran Routh’s Greensboro, N.C., home on Saturday “in connection with an investigation unrelated to child exploitation.”

It is not clear whether the investigation in question is related to Routh’s father. ABC News And CNN cite anonymous sources as saying this. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina declined to comment beyond court documents.

Once they arrived at the home, where Routh is the sole occupant, they found multiple electronic devices in his room and on his person, and later obtained a warrant to search them.

On a phone, which was stored in a laptop bag, they found hundreds of child sexual abuse files, including “videos from a known child pornography series produced outside of the state of North Carolina.” According to the complaint, videos from the unnamed series depict minors engaging in sexual acts.

A second phone, stolen from Routh himself, revealed more. Inside the download folder, investigators found a video of an adult woman performing sexual acts on a younger girl, approximately 6-8 years old.

The complaint states that the phone also contained chats from a messaging app often used by people who distribute and receive images of child sexual abuse.

It refers to a July chat in which the phone user — believed to be Routh — responded to an account offering cloud storage links for sale by asking for a preview of the content. That person responded with two graphic videos of adults performing sexual acts on minors.

A public defender listed in court documents as representing Routh did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Routh appeared in court Wednesday for a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors are asking that he be held pending trial; his detention hearing is scheduled for the afternoon of Oct. 1.

Oran Routh publicly defended his father last week

North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections records show Routh was arrested in 2016 on suspicion of assault on a female and interfering with emergency communications, both misdemeanors.

A LinkedIn account from a person named Oran Routh, who lists him as a customer service representative at Xerox Business Services and states “that he worked for my family’s business for many years.”

His father, Ryan Routhonce owned a roofing company in North Carolina and recently owned a company that built tiny homes in Hawaii — whose website Another son, Adam, is prominently featured.

He faces five charges in connection with the Florida incident, including three weapons charges, assault on a federal officer and — as of Tuesday — attempted assassination of a presidential candidatewhich carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Oran publicly stood up for his father last week after his arrest, say in a statement that “I have no comment other than a character profile of him as a loving and caring father and an honest, hardworking man.”