(Ken Silva, Headline USA) On Tuesday, Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Ryan Routh’s defense attorneys are allowed to test-fire the alleged would-be Trump assassin’s rifle, but they won’t be allowed to test other aspects of the rifle, including how well it aims.
Judge Cannon’s ruling was in response to a motion from Routh’s defense attorneys, who alleged that the FBI tainted case evidence by disassembling his rifle—making it impossible to determine its accuracy or usefulness the day he allegedly tried killing Trump last September at his Florida golf course.
“The scope, black tape, brackets, and paper/plastic tubing were all removed from the rifle,” defense attorneys Kristy Militello and Renee Sihvola said in a March 28 court filing, alleging that the FBI has “irreparably harmed” their case by disassembling the rifle.
The defense attorneys wanted their own experts to test the rifle. The Justice Department opposed the request, arguing that the rifle’s accuracy is irrelevant. Prosecutors further noted an FBI munitions expert already successfully test-fired the rifle, and has provided his expert report to the defense as part of discovery.
While allowing the defense to test-fire the rifle’s operability, Judge Cannon agreed with the DOJ that its accuracy doesn’t matter for the purposes of the case against Routh.
“Defendant’s Motion otherwise fails to show good cause to compel a live fire test beyond a test for operability. Such a demand, likely unprecedented, is premised on a legally improper theory of factual impossibility; it relies on speculative and conclusory claims about the mere possibility of developing additional evidence and insights into the accuracy and range of the rifle,” she said.
Today, Judge Cannon ordered that Ryan Routh's defense attorneys are allowed to test his rifle's operability, but not its accuracy or anything else.
"Such a demand [to test the rifle's accuracy], likely unprecedented, is premised on a legally improper theory of factual… https://t.co/dppJL41cYA pic.twitter.com/MuJueXniXT
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) April 15, 2025
“Accordingly, the live fire test authorized by this Order is limited strictly to a test for operability and shall not be used for any other live-fire purpose, whether related to accuracy, effective range, or other measurement.”
Judge Cannon ordered the test-firing to occur by May 15. Up until then, the rifle will be kept in the presence of an FBI agent uninvolved in the case, or another representative from the U.S. government, she added.
Prosecutors have accused Routh, 58, of Hawaii, of stalking Trump for a month before he built a sniper’s nest near the Trump International golf course in West Palm Beach.
Federal prosecutors charged Routh with possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, assault on a Secret Service agent, and attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate.
Routh’s trial is set for September.
Along with Routh’s rifle, the FBI also tainted evidence in the other assassination attempt against Trump last July. In that incident, the FBI hosed down the rooftop used by gunman Thomas Crooks immediately after the incident, and released Crooks’s body for cremation before members of Congress could examine it. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., later revealed that bullet fragments were still in Crooks’s body when it was cremated.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
