Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has accused the FBI of blocking a state investigation into the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

In a press conference on Tuesday, DeSantis announced that Florida would conduct its own investigation, asserting that federal agencies cannot be trusted to investigate threats against Trump due to their ongoing efforts to prosecute him.

According to DeSantis, these agencies have no place leading an investigation where the most serious violations fall under state law, not federal law.

“Today, I’m signing an Executive Order assigning the case involving the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump to the office of statewide prosecutor under the supervision of Attorney General Ashley Moody.”

“The suspect, Ryan Routh, is believed to have committed state law violations across multiple judicial circuits in the state. Palm Beach Judicial Circuit, the Judicial Circuit, including Martin County, as well as perhaps the Judicial Circuit represented by Broward County.”

“Also, the state of Florida has jurisdiction over the most serious straightforward offense, which is attempted murder. I’ve directed state agencies to move expeditiously and to provide full transparency to the public.”

Appearing on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, DeSantis doubled down on his accusations, revealing that state investigators were being rebuffed even when attempting to access the crime scene.

DeSantis believed that the FBI don’t want the state of Florida to have any involvement in the investigation.

Ingraham: Governor, I want to turn to another topic because we were relieved to hear that you are doing your own independent investigation in Florida concerning the second assassination attempt on President Trump. My question to you tonight is, are the feds being cooperative with your investigation? Are you concerned that you’re not getting the information you need?

DeSantis: The answer is no, they’re not being cooperative. Yes, I am concerned. For example, our investigators were rebuffed just going to the fence line outside of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. I think they’ve taken the position that they don’t want the state of Florida to be involved in this.

But here’s the thing, there were multiple violations of Florida law across multiple jurisdictions. We think at least three judicial circuits.

This guy, Ryan Routh, committed potential violations of Florida law. We have a duty to investigate this. We have a duty to bring the appropriate charges, and we also have a duty to inform the public about how this happened. I don’t anticipate their cooperation. I think they’ve just taken that position. I

think that’s unfortunate because even though I’ve been very clear, the state of Florida is going to do an investigation, I’ve not disputed their right to also investigate. It’s a federal government matter.

He was in their protective custody as a presidential candidate. But let us do this. Hopefully, that tune will change, but I can tell you right now, Laura, we have not gotten a lot of receptive response.

When asked by Laura Ingraham about the FBI’s swift dismissal of the attacker’s motives as a “lone wolf” scenario, DeSantis said that the public doesn’t trust these immediate conclusions from the feds, and rightly so. He said they need to preserve all evidence.

Ingraham, echoing the concerns of many Americans, asked why the FBI was so quick to shut down lines of inquiry in both this and the previous assassination attempt.

Ingraham: Very disturbing. By the way, we have Routh’s mugshot where he looks to be slightly smirking. He’s a very strange individual, to say the least. But we’ve heard other FBI agents-former agents-say they think it’s quite odd that in the first assassination attempt and the second assassination attempt, there’s almost an immediate response from the feds saying, “Oh, looks like he’s acted alone,” or, “We really don’t know what the motives are here.” Does that strike you as slightly strange, to say the least?

DeSantis: Yeah, I don’t think the public has confidence when that is being done. As soon as we got word of this on Sunday, I told our guys in state law enforcement, “Save all his social media because you know Facebook will delete it.

The tech companies want to delete it. Get his digital trail, store that, because we need to know how he ended up in Florida to begin with.

What is the pathway this guy has taken to end up in those bushes trying to assassinate the former President of the United States and current Republican nominee?” How did that happen? We have not gotten answers about Butler.

We haven’t gotten answers about things like the Las Vegas shooting from many years ago. So part of the investigation that our folks are doing is they are going to provide evidence they find of motive, evidence of his associations, and evidence of his beliefs. I think it’s very important that the public get the real story on that.

Ingraham: Yeah, well, the FBI has shredded its own credibility. Our governor, thank goodness you’re doing an investigation. I was so happy to hear that.

WATCH:

#BREAKING: Gov. Ron DeSantis says federal government won’t cooperate with Florida investigation into 2nd Trump assassination attempt

“No, they are not being cooperative, and yes, I am concerned […] Our investigators were rebuffed just going to the fence line outside of Trump… pic.twitter.com/MpKf04VA1d

— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) September 19, 2024