Two North Carolina residents have admitted in federal court that they supplied the rifle used in last year’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course. Prosecutors say Tina Brown Cooper acted as a middle-woman for her former employer, Ronnie Jay Oxendine, arranging the August 2024 sale of an SKS-style 7.62×39 mm rifle to Ryan Routh for $350 and taking a $100 fee for herself. Cooper pleaded guilty this week to firearms-trafficking charges that carry a potential 15-year sentence, while Oxendine entered a June guilty plea to possession of an unregistered firearm, exposing him to as much as 10 years in prison. Court filings describe how Routh, a convicted felon, paid the pair after telling Oxendine he would remove the gun’s serial number. About six weeks later, on Sept. 15, 2024, a Secret Service agent spotted the weapon protruding from bushes at Trump International Golf Club; the agent opened fire, and Routh fled before being arrested with the rifle in his vehicle. Routh is charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, multiple firearms offenses and assault on a federal officer. On July 8 he asked a federal judge to dismiss his public defenders, seeking a sealed hearing to appoint new counsel ahead of a trial scheduled for September. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.