Lawyer prosecuting second would-be Trump assassin went to high school with presiding judge, suspect alleges

WEST PALM BEACH, FL - In another bizarre twist in the world of former President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice attorney representing the would-be assassin in the second attempted assassination case went to high school with Judge Aileen Cannon, who is tapped to be the presiding judge in the case, Headline USA reports. 

You may recall that Cannon is the judge who presided over the now-defunct classified documents case, in which the former president was targeted by the Biden Justice Department over his alleged removal of classified documents when he left the White House. 

In another twist, the Department of Justice, which was unhappy with Cannon’s decision to deep-six the documents case, is arguing in favor of her being the judge in the case of Ryan Routh, who was posted outside a West Palm Beach golf course while the president was golfing, and had in his possession a semi-automatic rifle, body armor, and ammunition.

Routh filed a motion last month to have Cannon recuse herself because the former president appointed her, and she could benefit from a judicial promotion in a theoretical Trump second term. 

In what might be considered a peculiar response, the Department of Justice responded to the motion by saying that Cannon should stay. 

“This Court’s discretion to recuse from this matter is subject to review only for abuse of discretion. Here, Routh’s motion does not cite any authority mandating recusal in these circumstances and does not present either facts or case law requiring recusal on this record in light of the controlling standard. Judges are obligated to recuse only when there are proper grounds to do so,” the DOJ wrote in a two-page response. 

“The Defendant does not present such grounds in this motion.” 

Wednesday, Routh filed a reply to the DOJ, again asking for Cannon to recuse herself. 

“To briefly recap: a former President, Mr. Trump, is the alleged victim in this criminal case; Mr. Trump appointed Your Honor to the federal bench; this Court previously presided over cases where Mr. Trump was a party and issued some rulings that were favorable to him, including one dismissing a criminal case against him,” Routh wrote. 

“[W]hile on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump has repeatedly and publicly praised this Court and its rulings; Mr. Trump would have authority to appoint Your Honor to a position of power were he to become President again; and given the low odds of this Court being assigned three cases involving Mr. Trump, some have questioned whether the cases have been assigned at random,” he continued. 

Routh also alleged that a member of the prosecution team–Christopher Brown of the DOJ’s National Security Section in Miami–attended high school with Cannon, and she had also attended his wedding nine years ago. 

“It is unclear why the government believed that this information was important enough to share with defense counsel but not important enough to include in its response. And it is unclear why, despite hundreds of able prosecutors in this District and around the country, the government elected to staff its team in this high-profile case with a prosecutor who enjoys a longstanding, personal relationship with the presiding judge,” the motion said. 

Routh is scheduled to go to trial next February. While he was initially only charged with two federal firearms offenses, those charges were later upgraded in September as part of a five-count indictment that also included a charge of attempted assassination.