Left: Ryan Routh (Law&Crime). Center: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida). Right: President-elect Donald Trump arrives to speak at a meeting of the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon refused to mince words as she sent Donald Trump assassination suspect Ryan Routh, who was convicted of trying to shoot the president at one of his golf courses near Mar-a-Lago, off to die in prison on Wednesday — telling him, “The evil … is in you” and “You are not a good man” — while also cutting off a 20-page speech he tried to give.
“Your plot to kill was deliberate and evil,” blasted Cannon, a Trump appointee, according to The Associated Press. “You are not a peaceful man,” she charged.
Routh, meanwhile, thought otherwise.
“I did everything I could and lived a good life,” the 59-year-old told the court, before being cut off by Cannon after he tried giving his reported 20-page speech, which the judge relegated to just five minutes.
Cannon slapped Routh, who was convicted in September, with a sentence of life without parole, plus seven years for a gun charge, after he was found guilty of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and multiple firearm violations in connection with his assassination plot. Routh was accused of targeting Trump at a West Palm Beach golf course, with prosecutors alleging that he set up a sniper “hide” in the bushes.
“Cravenly, in cold blood, Routh attempted to kill President Trump, putting at risk of death also a brave Secret Service agent and potentially anyone in the line of fire,” the government said in a Jan. 16 sentencing memo, which noted how Routh has “never apologized” for his actions and requested a life sentence.
“Routh remains unrepentant for his crimes … for the lives he put at risk,” the memo said. “His life demonstrates near-total disregard for law.”
At his sentencing, Cannon told Routh, “The evil, sir, is in you. Not in anybody else,” according to The Palm Beach Post.
Routh, who was allowed to represent himself, claimed in a sentencing variance request that the jury that convicted him was “misled by his inability to effectively confront witnesses, use exhibits or affirmatively introduce impeachment evidence designed to prove his lack of intent to cause injury to anyone.” It took jurors just two hours and 20 minutes to find him guilty.
On the day his verdict was read, Routh made headlines for grabbing a pen from a desk and trying to unsuccessfully stab himself in the neck with it. He had voiced his disdain for Trump in court ramblings and filings, but had asked for leniency to be shown due to his age and other factors.
“Defendant denies he acted with the intent to kill a presidential candidate,” Routh said in his sentencing variance request. “The defendant is two weeks short of being 60-years-old. A just punishment would provide a sentence long enough to impose sufficient but not excessive punishment, and to allow defendant to experience freedom again as opposed to dying in prison.”
A term of 20 years, Routh said, would be “sufficient to meet the need for punishment.” The government, however, felt he deserved the maximum sentence.
Prosecutors said in their sentencing memo that Routh wanted to kill Trump in an attempt to “deny the American people” the option of voting for him in the November 2024 presidential election, while “seeking to alter violently this country”s future.” They insisted that Routh’s criminal acts at the golf course “were not impromptu” and he had been planning to assassinate the president for months.
“The Constitution affords citizens many peaceful avenues to oppose or express strong dissent about a Presidential candidate — murder is not one of them,” federal prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo. “Routh’s crimes undeniably warrant a life sentence — he took steps over the course of months to assassinate a major Presidential candidate, demonstrated the will to kill anybody in the way, and has since expressed neither regret nor remorse to his victims. His arguments for a downward variance from life imprisonment are wholly meritless.”
Routh’s daughter came forward in September 2025 after his conviction and called out U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon and the justice system about his trial, calling the case against him “bulls—” and blasting Cannon for being an “obviously biased” Trump appointee.
“She let Trump off on his charges last year,” Sara Routh told Miami station WPLG. “She should have recused herself from the beginning.”
Sara Routh pointed to Cannon’s dismissal of Trump’s classified documents case last year as proof of the legal cards being stacked against her father. It’s not the first time Cannon has been accused of being “biased,” with similar accusations coming after the Mar-a-Lago case dismissal.
“Obviously biased, anybody knows that,” Sara Routh lambasted.
