Federal Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed a motion by Ryan Routh’s attorneys to recuse herself from the attempted assassin’s case, as the defense team argued her appointment to the bench by Trump and her work on other Trump cases presented the appearance of bias.
Cannon said in a 7-page decision that the praise she has received by Trump, along with the speculation of a promotion to United States Attorney General or the U.S. Supreme Court, did not warrant turning the case over to another judge.
“I have never spoken to or met former President Trump except in connection with his required presence at an official judicial proceeding, through counsel,” Cannon wrote. “I have no ‘relationship to the alleged victim’ in any reasonable sense of the phrase.”
Legal pundits drew comparison with Cannon’s rationale to what might have been expected if DOJ Special Prosecutor Jack Smith had sought reassignment of the classified documents case, which Cannon dismissed. Smith is appealing that decision.
Another issue brought by Routh’s defense fell on deaf ears: She was high school classmates with one of the prosecutors in the case and attended his wedding nine years ago, while they both worked at the Justice Department.
“I maintain no ongoing personal relationship with the prosecutor, nor have I communicated with him in years,” Cannon wrote.
Routh’s defense team also questioned how several cases had been “randomly assigned” to Cannon’s courtroom.
“[G]iven the low odds of this Court being assigned three cases involving Mr. Trump, some have questioned whether the cases have been assigned at random,” the defense said.
“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,” Cannon said, with emphasis. “I will not be guided by highly inaccurate, uninformed, or speculative opinions to the contrary.”
