A secret service says its plan to protect him worked so how did an armed combat with the lengthy criminal record ligand, wait for 12 hours before getting within shooting distance of the former president of the united states. I'm kaitlan collins. And this is the source air tonight at 9:00 p. M. We are hearing for the first time from donald trump about that moment on the golf course yesterday what a secret service agent who was walking ahead of him spotted an apparent assassin hiding in the bushes all of a sudden we heard shots but being fired in the air. And i guess probably four or five and it sounded like bullets, but what do i know about that? but secret service knew immediately bullets and they grabbed me and i think probably the other ones, steve is one of the people see what gov, a great friend of mine, a secret service agent had seen a barrel of a ak47, which is a very powerful gun rifle. And you started shooting at the barrow and started shooting in the bushes could only see the barrel. How good is that? right? but could only see the bear on based on that, he started shooting and ran toward the target. And was shooting a lot. Of i mean, those were the shots we heard. The other one never got to shut off and he ran across the street and grabbed his car, hopped into his truck or a car. And amazingly, a civilian in that area, so something and it looked very suspicious and in the car, drove the car to the back of his truck of some kind and took pictures of the license plate game them to the sheriff's office i just want to note is we are hearing from trump on this. What we did hear from authorities today is his rifle was actually not an ak47 as they initially thought today, it was a different kind of rifle. And this also comes as late this evening, we're hearing from trump, we're also hearing from his running mate, senator j. D. Vance, who is speaking for the first time in public about the phone call that he he had with trump just minutes after all this happened right? answer it and he says, jd, you're not going to believe this, but they tried to do it again i said no, they didn't joshua me. What's going on here, sir end he says no, i was playing golf and the secret service found somebody who was trying to shoot me a lot more on what we are hearing from them tonight. What details they're revealing as we're also learning more about the multiple investigations now underway to determine whether this latest apparent attempt on trump's life could have been prevented. And if enough is being done to protect the republican nominee the fbi tells us that the suspect appears to have moved under the cover of darkness in the middle of the night around 2:00 a. M. When cell phone data shows ryan ruth in the area of the golf course at trump international. He may have remained there for nearly 12 hours, armed with that powerful gun the acting director of the secret service, who is now indefinitely in florida as they investigate this, as he spoke to trump, and that he has the highest level of protection right now few people know all things. Donald trump in south florida more than my lead source tonight, the state attorney for palm beach county, florida, dave aronberg and dave, it's great to have you here because we were talking yesterday, just as all this was happening and this was getting underway and we were a lot of details. We're just coming out, but given this is all happening in your backyard, what's your assessment of what we've heard from officials today about where all of this stands right now good to be with you. Kaitlan. Well, the feds are on top of this. They are doing a full thorough investigation and they have charged the suspect with two charges that will stick this. These are the easy charges punishable by up to ten years in prison for an ex felon possessing a firearm while all you need is an ex felon check and it was possessing a firearm check. You don't need any more intent or anything. So they're going to keep behind bars for that and you've got the other charges obliterating a serial number on a firearm. They got that to punishable by up to five years in prison there's still maybe a chance. And i think a probability that more charges could come, like aggravated assault with a firearm against a federal law enforcement it's an officer that's when the suspect pointed his rifle allegedly at a secret service agent. So that can get you up to 20 years in prison. So i think the feds are going to keep investigating and ultimately they could add on some new charges well, what about given clearly there was premeditation here. There was the gopro this person was lying there from wait for about 12 hours based on the cell phone data, what other charges could we potentially see here? because that was a big question today when it was just those first two per pertaining to this gun itself? well that aggravated assault with a deadly weapon that's a possibility. There's also a federal statute on threatening an ex president that can get you up to five years in prison they're going to look to see what is social media sites. Say, what was in the bag, what writings he's had, what kind of threats he's given. And that could be an additional charge generally when it comes to like, attempted murder, that's more a state charges and a federal charge, but also i think you did more than you have right now. You really have to get into his state of mind. He's got to take a substantial step into taking action that mean it's always a possibility. But generally, those kinds of charges are really at the state level rather than the federal level, but make no mistake. I think this guy is a whole world of hurt. He's going to be facing many years in prison and he's not going to get out of jail pending trial. They're going to show that he's a danger to the community. So he's not going to get pretrial release we heard from the sheriff and palm beach county earlier today talk about how maralago is about as safe as it can be at this point, talking about the level of protection at that place. But obviously the golf course is separate than that. It's about a 15minute drive as you will know, it's across the bridge in west palm beach how much harder is it to secure something like the trump international golf course that it is the maralago club which have that one entrance and one entrance out with obviously a guard shack at the front of it and a much harder perimeter. It seems yes. In fact, maralago is bordered on one side by water and they can easily shut down the roads. In fact, they've shut down the road, one major road outside of maralago, even when the former president is not there and that's the consternation of the palm beach residence now, in west palm beach is much harder to shut down the roads. You got major roads right outside of the golf club, which you're correct about ten to 15 minutes away. There's also those large shrubbery. The trees that are right in front of the fence. And so someone could hide in that and some very large perimeter. It's very difficult to monitor them that entire area, especially if you've got someone willing to wait for 12 hours to go there on the cover of darkness you know, this is not the first time you've seen someone breached the trees into the fence, there had been paparazzi been media members now, a lot of times the media will alert secret service. Sometimes they don't, and they take pictures of the former president while he's golfing. This is just first time someone has pointed a rifle at the former president, least in his direction. And so i do anticipate there'll be more security, but it's just really hard to monitor that property that closely. Yeah and, you know, yesterday when there was that first briefing by officials, you were there and you spoke to reporters just before we'd actually seen charges now we've seen that brief body cam footage that they've released of them actually arresting ryan ruth. You can see officials have their guns drawn there directing him to back up with his hands in the air. He lifts his shirt seemingly to it to show he doesn't have any weapons or anything on him as he walks backwards. And then they arrest him what are you hearing from other colleagues? law enforcement people tonight about just the aftermath and i mean, are they shocked that this was able to happen? they're grateful at the good samaritan. Think about it. You had a passerby who saw something suspicious, took a photo of the cars license plates, so law enforcement was armed with that knowledge, not just to the make and model of the car, but the license plate. And he still was able to get out 45 minutes of a head start driving north, apparently perhaps driving back to north carolina but he only got as far as the county north of palm beach, martin county where the deputies had a great stop. And i think this shows also that the suspect is used to this maybe not this type of crime, but he's got a long felony rap sheet back in north carolina. So he knows enough not to try to do anything weird on that traffic stop roles, you could get shot. He knows enough not to talk. Apparently he didn't. He clammed up, didn't say anything when he was stopped and now he was joking with his lawyer today in court. So yeah, this guy has been through the process time and time again, but his attorney will be getting out anytime soon. Well, yeah, the word was that he was all smiles in his initial appearance, joking with his attorney. I don't know if he was trying to show that he's insane or he just is that kind of person. By the way, it's gonna be very hard for him to establish a an insanity defense because although he's clearly got a screw loose when he fled, it showed that he knew the difference between right wrong to establish an insanity defense, you have to not know the difference between right and wrong. Why do you flip? because he knew what you did was wrong and against the law that's really interesting. David aronberg, thank you for that. As you hear more, please keep us updated and come back to us here on the source thank you. Kaitlan. And as you heard, mr. Aronberg mentioned there, brian didn't make that first court appearance today where he was apparently joking with his attorney, didn't seem like much of a joke. He had his hands and his feet shackled together as he was facing those two federal gun charges that we mentioned, a short time after that, we learned that route that actually popped up on the fbi's radar. Our back in 2019 after there was a tip about a felon in possession of a gun, even as law enforcement tried to run down that, what led up to this, we should note tonight the secret service is still facing a pretty immense challenge, which is what comes in, what happens with trump's golf course and just how accessible it is. We know this firsthand here at cnn because take a look at these images as mr. Ehrenburg just mentioned, when trump was in office, are photojournalists could often capture video of him golfing at trump international. Now this would come if the white house didn't say whether or not the president was golfing or who it was would journalists often relied on images like the ones that you're seeing here to get a sense of the the president's schedule, but to capture these images seen him, photographers were not on the property. Its still itself. Instead, we were positioned across the street on public property oftentimes officials knew we were there. Sheriff's would ride by. But trump has often still very visible through our cameras, through the tree line of the property itself. Our top law enforcement sources tonight are cnn, national security analyst, and the former assistant secretary at the department of homeland security, juliette kayyem, and also former fbi senior intel officer filled, but it's great to have you back fill because what we heard from the fbi today and this ties back to what david was just talking about. There are potential may maybe insanity plea if that's what what the suspect goes for here, they're talking to witnesses were at the scene there talking to members of his family. One of those interviews what what kind of questions are they asking? boy, there's a lot of them, but first question are gonna be about whether there's there are other people who were involved in this. You've got to ensure even if you are 99% certain, there was no conspiracy, you got to ensure that nobody was helping him. Nobody told him that trump would be their you also have questions obviously about who provided the weapon, but then investigation gets more complicating. As you add in things like what's on his cell phone, what's his email? what what's his google search history? you might be going back to reinterview people with what happened a year ago, what happened two years ago? how did he get motivated to do this? was he inspired by somebody so? the initial questions are about threat, but that the investigation starts to get more complex as you get a timeline going back, maybe 2345 years, kaitlan yeah. And obviously the gun is a big question here. Phil and juliet, that's that's why i'm wondering about this 2019 investigation that an fbi tip that they got that he was it's in possession of a firearm that he was a felon. He's obviously not allowed to have one. But the click case we were told was closed because the bureau said they didn't get any more information i mean, when i heard that kind of raised my eyebrows in a sense of why would that be the case here? why would they wouldn't look into this any further if that is something that they're worried about right? and the question is, who do who tipped them off? was it a family member? we know it was his daughter's car. We know the sons spoke yesterday. They have concerns of what his possession of how he came into possession of the gun as well as why the fbi did not pursue it, could they not find tim while you all of questions that will be asked because you go back in any of these cases, there's always these moments, right? if only someone had stepped in or they've gone and investigated this, if only than this could have been stopped. So those are going to be the main questions for how did he possess this? why? wasn't he stopped before? how did he stay at the golf area for so long with a car? amancio, if it is not just him hiding. There is a car right there doing this for me as someone who studies radicalization and talks often with you about political violence? there is a definite disconnect between what we're seeing before and all of a sudden this political violence and so what hasn't, what happened in the last couple of weeks, months, or years that would have turned him from some guy who was like very into ukraine to now being a potential assassin. Again, it's trump and that's what you're going to want to look for. Were there other people egging them on? was he online? did he get radicalized by the butler, pennsylvania assassination attempt? and he's a copycat and therefore, we should worry about others yeah. And he obviously has a pretty massive online presence. If you look through the social media feeds, there's a lot for officials to pour over here, but feel on the golf course the other thing we heard from the acting