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).
The alleged would-be assassin of President Donald Trump has submitted a list of witnesses he intends to call during his upcoming trial, and some of the names are likely to surprise most of those involved.
Ryan Routh, 59, is representing himself against accusations of attempting to shoot the president last year at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. In anticipation of the trial beginning next week, Routh presented his witness list on Tuesday, complete with an insult and an allegation.
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“Donald John Trump” is listed as the 22nd witness Routh intends to speak with, a man whom he referred to as an “insecure ego idiot-mad fool.” The 21 preceding names included a gun expert, several doctors, and Routh”s own son.
But several other inclusions are likely to spark the perplexity of the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) – even as it stated its fears this summer of the trial devolving into a “circus” once U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon gave Routh the green light to act as his own representation. Routh wants to speak with Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi — two prominent Columbia University activists detained by ICE after leading campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war — as well as a well-known Palestinian scholar.
Routh has been vocal in his support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia, at one point saying, “[Trump] is not good for Ukraine,” according to a filing from the DOJ. He also flew to Ukraine in 2022 in an effort to recruit foreign soldiers for the Eastern European country’s defense, but he was unsuccessful.
Routh has been charged with attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and multiple firearm violations on Sept. 15, 2024. The case has no apparent link or connection to the Israel-Hamas war or Ukraine.
The defendant’s witness list is far different from the government’s, which mentions mostly law enforcement agents from the FBI, Secret Service, and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, among others.
Routh does make mention of the Secret Service, asking for one agent who “fired shots” to be a witness. The name of his final requested witness is redacted and set next to an allegation from Routh. This person, according to Routh, allegedly “wanted me to spank/slap a– and I — refused; I will not spank, choke or pull hair-NO.”
Last month, Cannon – a Trump appointee – permitted Routh to call an expert witness to testify on his behalf against DOJ claims about his gun and how he was allegedly “hid[ing]” and waiting for Trump. This expert – Michael McClay, a former sniper in the U.S. Marines – is the first name listed on Routh’s list from Tuesday.
But Routh has also faced setbacks in his defense. Earlier last month, Cannon blocked him from accessing “classified information” over issues of “national security.”
Also on Tuesday, she denied in part a motion from Routh to introduce two of his written letters, one of which was titled “What do we as a world need to fix.” Cannon noted that prosecutors did not intent to introduce either of the letters into evidence at trial.
Routh’s witness list appearing to contain names not directly related to his case would track with how prosecutors see his defense. In July, they wrote that “It is the defendant’s evidence that is most likely to upend this trial by injecting irrelevant and prejudicial facts unrelated to the actual charges.”
Routh was arrested on Sept. 15, 2024, when a Secret Service agent allegedly saw him with a rifle “in the exterior brush along the fence line near the 6th hole putting green” at Trump’s golf course. The agent opened fire, causing Routh to flee before he was arrested, authorities said. Federal agents said they found a letter on Routh stating that “[t]his was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you.”
Routh’s defense team took issue with the case landing before Cannon, pointing out that Trump appointed her to her U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, that she dismissed the classified documents indictment against Trump brought by former special counsel Jack Smith, and that the president has repeatedly praised the judge in public.
Cannon has dismissed the backlash and refused to recuse herself from the case. The trial is set to begin on Monday.
