The man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Trump on his golf course in West Palm Beach left a handwritten manifesto confessing to the plot and offering money for someone else to finish the job if he failed.

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” the suspect wrote, according to a filing in federal court released on Monday. “I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is held in custody on two felony firearms violations and faces additional charges. Federal prosecutors in West Palm Beach, Florida, will seek to keep him in jail at a bond hearing later Monday.

Court documents outline steps taken by Routh, a convicted felon, to carry out the assassination, including mapping out an escape route to Mexico.

Other equipment found in Routh’s Nissan Xterra included license plates, six cellphones, 12 pairs of gloves and a passport.

In addition to the manifesto confessing to his plans, federal law enforcement confiscated handwritten dates in August, September and October that listed places where Mr. Trump had appeared or was expected to show up.

Routh never fired a shot at the former president but got within several hundred yards with a semi-automatic rifle.

Routh was spotted on Sept. 15 by a Secret Service agent in the bushes directly across from the sixth hole at Trump International Golf Course, where the former president was playing.

The agent spotted Routh when he was sweeping the area in advance of Mr. Trump, who was close behind at the fifth hole, according to the court document. The agent saw the barrel of a rifle protruding through the bushes and a man’s face partly obscured by the foliage. The gun barrel shifted toward the agent, and the agent fired his service weapon at the man.

A witness spotted Routh fleeing the spot, getting into his car and speeding off. He was arrested later, and his SKS-style rifle with scope was found in the bushes. Routh’s fingerprint was lifted from the gun, court documents indicate.

The court documents revealed Routh dropped off a box at the home of an unidentified witness several months ahead of the assassination attempt. The witness opened the box after Routh’s arrest and found ammunition, a metal pipe, building material tools, four phones and various letters, including the manifesto about attempting to kill Mr. Trump.

It was addressed to “The World” and stated Mr. Trump “is unfit to be anything, much less a U.S. president.”

Mr. Trump, he wrote, “ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled.”

Routh is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 30.

He faces additional charges by state prosecutors, who are conducting an independent investigation that could lead to a charge of attempted murder, which carries a life sentence in Florida.

It was the second attempted assassination of Mr. Trump in two months.

The former president was grazed in the ear by an attempted assassin’s bullet on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That shooter, positioned on a nearby roof, killed a rally attendee and injured two others before he was shot and killed by a Secret Service agent.

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.