Aileen Cannon Overseeing Ryan Routh Case ‘Remarkable Coincidence’—Lawyer

A former prosecutor has said that Judge Aileen Cannon will likely recuse herself from the Ryan Routh gun case.
The Department of Justice charged 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh with possession of a firearm while a former felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Routh allegedly tried to shoot Donald Trump at a Palm Beach golf course owned by the former president on September 15, and more charges are pending.
Ty Cobb, former assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland and a one-time White House lawyer in the Trump administration, said that Cannon’s appointment to the Routh case is “a remarkable coincidence” and that “you can’t make this up.”
Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, oversaw his classified documents case and threw out all charges because she said the special prosecutor was illegally appointed. She has now been randomly assigned the Routh case. Newsweek sought email comment from Cannon’s office on Wednesday.
“I would suspect that she may recuse herself or have the case reassigned. The defense attorney will certainly file if she does not. The defense attorney will file a motion to transfer the case to another judge, citing her palpable bias,” Cobb said.
Speaking on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront on Tuesday, Cobb said that the defense will likely appeal if Cannon doesn’t agree to recuse herself.
He added that the defense would likely seek a mandamus order, in which a higher court compels a lower court to reverse a decision it made.
“It will be an interesting potential mandamus to try to get the 11th circuit [court of appeals] to remove her, and it’s certainly a very good appellate motion for the defense,” Cobb told Burnett.
“I suspect she will not be the trial judge in that case, but in the times we are living in, it’s just one more crazy fact,” Cobb said.
While Routh did not fire any shots on September 15, a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle sticking out of the fence of Trump’s Florida golf course and opened fire. Routh was later arrested after police stopped his car.
Kristy Greenberg, an MSNBC legal analyst and former Manhattan prosecutor, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday that Cannon will be far more efficient in dealing with Routh’s case than she was in dealing with Trump’s classified documents case.
“Watch Judge Cannon use basic case management skills to move Trump’s attempted assassination case along. It was never incompetence. She purposely took the bait from Trump to delay the classified documents case every single time,” Greenberg wrote.
Trump was facing 40 federal charges in Cannon’s court over his alleged handling of sensitive materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving the White House in January 2021. He was also accused of obstructing efforts by federal authorities to retrieve them.
The Republican presidential nominee had pleaded not guilty and has said the case is part of a political witch hunt.
Newsweek sought email comment from Trump’s attorney and from Cannon’s office on Tuesday.
In her dismissal of the charges on July 15, Cannon noted that there is no constitutional backing for appointing special counsel Smith, a “private citizen,” as a Department of Justice prosecutor in charge of all Trump’s federal indictments.
The former president released a statement on Monday denouncing the federal prosecution of Routh and demanding that the case remain in the Florida court system.
Trump wrote that the charges against Routh were a politically motivated “slap on the wrist.”
Newsweek sought email comment from the Trump campaign on Wednesday.
“The charges brought against the maniac assassin are a slap on the wrist. It’s no wonder, since the DOJ and FBI have been coming after me nonstop with Weaponized Lawfare since I announced my first Historic Campaign for the Presidency,” Trump’s statement read.