Left: Ryan Wesley Routh (Law&Crime). Center: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida). Right: Donald Trump speaks at the annual Road to Majority conference in Washington, DC, in June 2024 (Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP).
A federal judge in Florida on Thursday crushed a local man’s bid to dismiss some of his criminal charges for allegedly attempting to assassinate Donald Trump last year with a high-powered rifle at one of the president’s golf courses.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee whose rulings in his Mar-a-Lago classified documents case largely cut the prosecution off at its knees, denied a motion from defendant Ryan Routh to have part of his case dropped.
Routh is facing a five-count federal indictment, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and assault of a federal officer.
Routh moved in late April to dismiss the last two counts of the indictment: possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and illegally owning a firearm as a convicted felon. He has a prior conviction for possession of dynamite.
His public defenders argued that the two charges were “unconstitutional” and violated his Second Amendment rights.
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Cannon noted in her order that she was denying Routh’s motion because she disagreed with his lawyers’ argument that Routh should be able to exercise his constitutional right to own a firearm despite his past convictions. Prosecutors said at a hearing last week that “a firearm with an obliterated serial number has no lawful purpose,” according to NPR.
Citing legal precedent from a 2024 case about possessing a gun with an obliterated serial number, United States v. Price, Cannon wrote: “In other words, ‘if he can be constitutionally prohibited from possessing any firearm without running afoul of the Second Amendment, then he can surely be prohibited from possessing a discrete subset of firearms — namely, firearms with obliterated serial numbers — without running afoul of it too.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Routh in September 2024 was arrested in Florida after a Secret Service agent allegedly spotted him with a rifle “in the exterior brush along the fence line near the 6th hole putting green” at the Trump International Golf Club as the former president golfed one hole behind. Authorities have said that the agent opened fire, leading Routh to flee the scene in a Nissan Xterra.
Investigators later said that a witness statement from someone identified in court filings as T.C.M. was instrumental in identifying and detaining Routh
After Routh’s arrest, authorities said they found a letter addressed to the “world” stating that “[t]his was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you.” Routh had been camped out for some 12 hours waiting for Trump to golf, according to court documents.
Routh has pleaded not guilty to his charges. If convicted in the federal case, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
He is also facing state charges, including attempted first-degree murder and terrorism.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
