Left: Aileen M. Cannon (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida). Right: Ryan Wesley Routh arrested by deputies in Florida on Sept. 15, 2024 (Martin County Sheriff’s Office).
A defense attorney for the man who allegedly attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at his Palm Beach, Florida, golf course asked the judge overseeing the case for a lengthy extension of the pretrial calendar to deal with mountains of discovery.
During the Wednesday hearing, however, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon expressed a decided measure of skepticism at the request — but said she would defer ruling until late this week or early next week.
Earlier this week, Ryan W. Routh, 58, filed a motion asking the court to reset the beginning of trial in the high-profile case from February 2025 to December 2025, citing the potential for a constitutionally-deficient defense should proceedings continue at the current pace.
At the hearing in the provincial Fort Pierce courtroom, Assistant Federal Public Defender Kristy Militello reiterated the case staked out in the 18-page motion to continue trial and revise scheduling.
“We’re still really in the dark,” Militello told the judge, according to a courtroom report by The Palm Beach Post.
Militello and Assistant Federal Public Defender Renee Sihvola said there was an “extraordinary volume” of material, including files sourced from 17 of Routh’s cellular phones, one other phone, and numerous other digital files. That discovery came from federal prosecutors and even more is believed to be on the way.
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Then, after a basic review of those files, the documents and videos will be integrated into the defense’s case — which could take several months, according to Routh’s attorneys.
“I don’t have the resources of the FBI,” Militello said, making her case before the Trump-appointed judge, according to a courtroom report by Miami-based NBC affiliate WTVJ. “[It would] take a lawyer a year without sleep or vacation to review all the information in this case.”
Cannon, for her part, was reportedly not convinced.
“I’m not entirely sure the road blocks you’re describing exist to the extent you’re suggesting,” the judge told Routh’s lead attorney.
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Still, the prospect of at least some delay could be in the offing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley said the government did not generally object to pushing the trial back a bit but chided the defense’s nearly yearlong request for a December 2025 trial date as “wrong on many fronts,” according to the Palm Beach Post.
Shipley said such an extension is “just not feasible,” according to a courtroom report by West Palm Beach-based NBC affiliate WPTV.
In the end, Cannon said she would issue a ruling on the defense motion to continue trial “in the not-too-distant future.”
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“Discovery delays and the extraordinary volume of discovery have made the current trial schedule incompatible with Mr. Routh’s due process rights,” the motion reads. “The pace and quantity of discovery production, and the need to process disclosed materials into a usable form, prevent counsel at this time from providing a definitive estimate of the number of hours required for review. What is clear, however, is that the diligent efforts of counsel will be insufficient to prepare a case of this magnitude for trial on February 10, 2025. Proceeding with the scheduled trial or anytime soon thereafter — on charges punishable by life imprisonment — would result in a miscarriage of justice.”
In September 2024, Routh, who hails from Hawaii, 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.
After Routh was caught, federal agents 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.” Investigators also said that Routh had been camped out for some 12 hours, apparently waiting for Trump to begin playing golf.
Routh was indicted on charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm, possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, and using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Perhaps notably, Routh now literally and figuratively sat in the same defendant’s seat the president-elect once occupied when Cannon oversaw the since-dismissed Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Throughout the pendency of that beleaguered prosecution, Cannon was dogged by complaints that she allowed the codefendants and their allies wide latitude to delay, file frivolous legal documents that push untenable legal theories, push back deadlines, and otherwise engage in dilatory tactics — with an eye toward making sure no trial occurred before the 2024 presidential election.
Jerry Lambe and Matt Naham contributed to this report.
