U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon will hear the case of the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Cannon has been a major judicial figure in Trump’s legal life in the past. She presided over the federal case against Trump alleging he improperly possessed classified documents and earlier this year threw out the case, according to Politico.
Cannon was randomly assigned the case Tuesday after federal charges against Routh were filed.
An indictment handed up Tuesday charges Routh with attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime and assault on a federal officer in addition to two previous charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Routh remains behind bars.
“Based on what has been released, there is significant evidence that – not only did he plan this for a very long time – but he took what is called a ‘substantial step’ toward carrying out this plan,” legal analyst Katie Cherkasky said Wednesday, according to Newsweek. “So it seems like a very open and shut case on the factual side of things.”
A court document seeking to have Routh detained before his trial said that an acquaintance of Routh’s opened a box left with him last Wednesday to find a letter inside of it that “stated, among other things, ‘This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you.”
“I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job,’” the document, which includes an image of the first page of the letter, said.
The letter further said that Trump “ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled.”
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“Everyone across the globe from the youngest to the oldest know that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a U.S. president,” the letter said.
The court document also noted that in Routh’s car, authorities found a “handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October 2024 and venues where the former President had appeared or was expected to be present.”
The document said that based on cell phone activity, Routh left Greensboro, North Carolina, on Aug. 14 and that multiple times between Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, “Routh’s cell phone accessed cell towers located near Trump International and the former President’s residence at Mar-a-Lago.”
Routh last year published a book in which he supported killing Trump due to Trump’s decision to discard the Iranian nuclear deal developed by the Obama administration, according to Newsweek.
“I must take part of the blame for the retarded child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless,” Routh, who has indicated he supported Trump in 2016, wrote.
“But I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize. You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal,” Routh wrote.
“No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection,” the book said.
“Violence targeting public officials endangers everything our country stands for, and the Department of Justice will use every available tool to hold Ryan Routh accountable for the attempted assassination of former President Trump charged in the indictment,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, according to The Hill.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate violence that strikes at the heart of our democracy, and we will find and hold accountable those who perpetrate it. This must stop,” the statement added.
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