Via The Truth About Guns by Darwin Nercesian
Remember Ryan Routh, the would-be assassin caught hiding in the bushes of President Trump’s Florida golf club last year with a novel for a rap sheet and an aborted SKS for a rifle? Well, this nut wasn’t alone in his shell, and now the unwitting accomplices who helped Routh get his hands on that abomination are facing their karma. But it’s not just for putting a synthetic stock on an SKS with a detachable mag and a scope that looks like it’s being held to the receiver by electrical tape. It is about helping this Carlos the Jackal wannabe obtain a firearm while knowing full well he was prohibited from purchasing or possessing one.
Tina Brown Cooper and Ronnie Jay Oxendine have pleaded guilty to federal gun charges after having been indicted in March and arrested in April for their part in the scheme. The Department of Justice alleges that Cooper brokered the deal, acting as a go-between for Routh to purchase the Chinese SKS from Oxendine in August of 2024. At the time, Cooper was working for Oxendine at his Greensboro, North Carolina, roofing company, according to police.
Court documents outlining agreements in both cases reveal that Cooper pleaded guilty to firearm trafficking on July 7, while Oxendine submitted his guilty plea last month to charges of possession of an unregistered firearm after police discovered a short-barreled shotgun in his storage facility.
According to federal prosecutors, the transaction took place at Oxendine’s roofing company, where Cooper and Routh met with the business owner who sold the SKS for $350, plus a $100 finder’s fee for Cooper’s trouble. Oh, to be a fly on the wall, just to see the expressions on the hapless faces of these individuals as they watched the news reverberate with Routh’s arrest only six weeks later in Palm Beach as he targeted the former and future President of the United States with his Chicom trainwreck.
Of course, both defendants claimed zero advanced knowledge of Routh’s plans, which have landed this not-so-lovable loser with charges of attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and unlawful possession of a firearm. According to reports, Cooper allegedly told the FBI that Routh had asked for help to obtain a gun “for his son to use as protection,” because Routh could not legally purchase a firearm due to having a criminal record. In fact, Routh has been barred from possessing guns since a 2002 weapons-related conviction.
FBI interviews reveal that Oxendine claims to have met Routh when both men owned roofing companies in the 1990s, but said they were not friends. According to Cooper, she had worked for Routh at his roofing company during the late 1990s and early 2000s. But, being forthright with authorities has not been Cooper’s strong suit, as prosecutors say she allegedly provided inconsistent accounts of what took place and ultimately admitted to the FBI that she deleted files on her phone to “avoid any involvement with the assassination attempt.”
Oxendine sang quite loudly, telling the FBI that Cooper instructed him to deny everything and not to cooperate with authorities after the botched assassination attempt. Cooper also later “admitted she lied to agents out of fear of criminal consequences for her involvement in the attempted assassination attempt of former President Donald J. Trump,” according to court records of FBI interviews, and ultimately admitted to her involvement and knowledge of Routh’s status as a prohibited individual.
“Additionally, Cooper admitted she was ‘guilty’ of assisting Routh, whom she knew was a prohibited person, in acquiring a firearm,” according to the court.
Routh, who is not named in Oxendine and Cooper’s criminal indictments, has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the assassination plot and is set for a September trial, although he recently moved to fire his public defenders.
These three amigos may not all have been cut from the same cloth, but perhaps share the cumulative IQ of a smooth-brained marsupial, but less adorable. This is why nobody should ever participate in a straw purchase or a private party sale when there is even the slightest hint of impropriety afoot.
Read in its entirety at thetruthaboutguns.com.
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Not a surprise. I never thought this was a lone shooter like I never thought the Vegas massacre was a lone shooter.