Ryan Routh cited the GOP presidential nominee's praise for the judge who dismissed the classified documents case and could be up for a big promotion.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon declined to recuse herself from the case of Ryan Routh, who is charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump last month. The judge appointed to the federal bench by the alleged victim in Routh’s case brushed aside the defendant’s concerns about Trump’s praise of Cannon and the possibility that he could promote her to even higher office if he’s elected next week.

“I have no control over what private citizens, members of the media, or public officials or candidates elect to say about me or my judicial rulings,” Cannon wrote in an order published Tuesday. “I have never spoken to or met former President Trump except in connection with his required presence at an official judicial proceeding, through counsel,” added the judge who dismissed Trump’s classified documents case in July.

  • @GroundedGator
    9•7 hours ago

    This is a bit of a non-story.

    Department of Justice already decided not to reassign the case.

    Backed into a corner, the Justice Department finally took a stance on Cannon’s partiality on Oct. 21—at least in the context of the Routh prosecution. In a perfunctory, one-and-a-half-page filing, the government opposed Routh’s motion, stating that it did “not present either facts or case law requiring recusal on this record in light of the controlling standard.”

    Given that the Justice Department has already ruled on this, there was no way that Cannon was going to say “You might be right, I can’t be impartial.” Has she done that it would have also guaranteed her removal from the documents case when it is eventually reopened. Though I suspect she’ll be removed from that anyway.