(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Judge Aileen Cannon has scheduled a secret hearing to take place with the Justice Department to determine what classified evidence will be held from discovery in the case of Ryan Routh, the man who allegedly tried killing Donald Trump on his Florida golf course last September.
Cannon scheduled the hearing last week in response to a DOJ said it intends to exercise Section 4 of the Classified Information Procedures Act, which allows the U.S. government to keep state secrets just that: secret—even if it negatively impacts the rights of a defendant.
UPDATE: Judge Aileen Cannon is holding a secret hearing w/ the DOJ on March 7 to determine what classified information will be withheld from alleged would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh–and the wider public.
Not only is the public barred from attending this hearing; Routh and his… https://t.co/qGtP9EXfcO pic.twitter.com/cWCdRvFe9A— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) February 25, 2025
The hearing, which is set for March 7, will allow Judge Cannon to review the evidence that the DOJ intends to withhold from Routh and his attorneys—and from the wider public.
Indeed, Section 4 of the CIPA “authorizes federal district courts to deny, or otherwise restrict, discovery of classified documents and information,” according to the DOJ. Instead of having to provide a defendant with access to the actual classified evidence, the DOJ is allowed to summarize such evidence under Section 4 of CIPA.
For the March 7 hearing, not only will the public be barred from attending; so will Routh and his attorneys. Judge Cannon did direct the DOJ’s classified information security officer to initiate security clearance procedures for Routh’s defense attorneys, presumably so that they can also review classified information.
Judge Cannon added that if she decides that any classified information can be withheld from Routh, then she will let the defense attorneys know.
The DOJ hasn’t signaled what evidence could be classified in Routh’s case, but it could pertain to his travels to Ukraine and connections to the U.S. intelligence community. Routh was recruiting fighters to go to Ukraine up to within days of his alleged Sept. 15 assassination attempt.
Routh is set to stand trial in September. His case is at least the second Trump assassination case to involve classified information.
In December, the DOJ filed a similar motion to keep classified information secret in the case of Asif Merchant, the Pakistani man who allegedly tried hiring two hitmen in an Iranian-sponsored assassination plot against Trump.
🚨IMPORANT: The DOJ has signaled that it will exercise its "state secrets privilege" to suppress evidence in the case of Asif Merchant, the the Pakistani who tried hiring 2 undercover FBI agents in the so-called Iran assassination plot against Donald Trump.
The state-secrets… pic.twitter.com/AlVBz1ZI5e
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) December 20, 2024
As Headline USA has detailed, the notion that Iran conspired to assassinate Trump is highly dubious. In the Merchant case, the two hitmen he attempted to hire were undercover FBI agents introduced to him by one of their informants. Merchant appears to have been an unwitting dupe in an FBI sting operation.
However, the evidence that would prove whether Merchant was a legitimate assassin or an FBI patsy may never see the light of day, thanks to CIPA.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
