Ryan Wesley Routh takes part in a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ruled Tuesday that she would continue to oversee the legal proceedings of the man accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump while he was golfing in Florida last month — expressing frustration at speculation that she would favor the former president in court so he would nominate her to a higher judicial appointment if he is again elected president.
Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the federal bench in Florida in late 2020, is separately overseeing the federal classified document and obstruction case against the former president. She drew widespread criticism in July when she decided to dismiss the 40-count indictment, ruling that Attorney General Merrick Garland had unlawfully appointed special counsel Jack Smith to lead the prosecution.
Smith is appealing that ruling.
Less than three months after Cannon tossed that case, she was also assigned to the federal government’s prosecution of Ryan Routh — the gunman accused of bringing a rifle to Trump’s golf course and charged with attempting to assassinate the former president and 2024 Republican nominee.
Both cases were brought in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a jurisdiction that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and private club.
Routh has been in custody pending his trial and asked for Cannon to recuse herself, arguing that the judge has an “appearance of partiality” since Trump appointed her to the bench and because she oversaw the classified document case. Routh’s attorney also said that if Trump became president, “he would have authority to nominate Your Honor to a federal judgeship on a higher court were a vacancy to arise.”
Cannon strongly rebutted those allegations.
“This case, like the prior cited cases involving former President Trump, were randomly assigned to me through the Clerk’s random case assignment system. Period. I will not be guided by highly inaccurate, uninformed, or speculative opinions to the contrary,” Cannon wrote in her opinion Tuesday.
“I have never spoken to or met former President Trump except in connection with his required presence at an official judicial proceeding, through counsel. I have no ‘relationship to the alleged victim’ in any reasonable sense of the phrase,” the opinion continued. “I follow my oath to administer justice faithfully and impartially, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of this country.”
The threshold for judges to recuse themselves is high. Parties are often reluctant to make such requests to the judge overseeing their case because they do not want to offend that person if they decide to remain on the case.
