A federal judge has barred Ryan Wesley Routh — the man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump on his Florida golf course last year — from seeing classified material related to the case.
Responding to a motion by federal prosecutors, Judge Aileen Cannon wrote in a ruling Friday that “the United States has made a sufficient showing that the information at issue was classified” and that its disclosure “could cause serious damage or exceptionally grave damages to the national security of the United States.”
Typically in a criminal case, attorneys for a defendant are allowed “discovery” — the ability to view all documents and evidence obtained by the prosecution.
However, Routh, 59, is representing himself in his upcoming trial and is seen as a potential national security risk.
He has been charged with attempting to kill the president on September 15 of last year and assaulting a federal officer as well as multiple firearms violations.
The assassination attempt took place at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida as the president was approaching the fifth hole and a Secret Service agent allegedly spotted Routh’s rifle poking out of the bushes near the sixth green.
Routh has pled not guilty.
In late June, Routh wrote to Judge Cannon in an exceptionally long, one-paragraph typewritten letter. He asked why the death penalty wasn’t included in his case and suggested he be included in a prisoner swap with U.S. adversaries.
Judge Cannon released the letter into the docket record. Among other requests, it read:
Also, why is the death penalty not allowed, at nearly 60 a life of nothingness without love — what is the point. Why is it not all or nothing? I had wished for a prisoner swap with Hamas, Iran for a female protestor or China for Jimmy Lai or one of the 40 others or to freeze to death In Siberia in exchange for a Ukrainian soldier that I could die of being of some use and save all this court mess…
“Perhaps you have the power to trade me away,” Routh continued. “What an easy diplomatic victory for Trump to give an American he hates to China, Iran or North Korea or wherever as a gesture of peace for an unjustly held democratic prisoner — everyone wins.”
Judge Cannon is the same Florida federal judge who presided over the legal case regarding the former president’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, which she dismissed in 2024 after ruling special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Before granting Routh’s request to represent himself, Fox News reported, Cannon told the alleged would-be assassin that his court-appointed attorneys “will defend you far better than you can defend yourself” and “I strongly urge you not to make this decision.”
Routh ignored her advice.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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