Lawyers for Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last year, have requested that witness testimony in his case be disregarded due to the constitutionality of the testimony.
Routh's legal team filed documents on Monday requesting that statements from one witness, identified only as "T.C.M" in court documents, be disregarded.
"The identification procedures used to implicate Ryan Routh in this case were impermissibly suggestive and violated his constitutional right to due process," Routh wrote in the filing. "Both the show-up identification conducted on Interstate 95 and the subsequent photographic identification procedure, where T.C.M. was shown a single photograph of Mr. Routh, were unnecessarily suggestive and created a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification."
Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is tasked with overseeing the case. Cannon previously ruled in cases against Trump about classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, in which her decisions severely hindered the prosecution.
In September 2024, Routh was arrested for reportedly hiding "in the exterior brush along the fence line near the 6th hole putting green" with a rifle in hand, allegedly lying in wait at Trump International Golf Club in Florida for Trump. The secret service agent who spotted him opened fire, causing Routh to flee, but he was then located and apprehended by other agents.
Law enforcement then found a letter following his arrest in which he allegedly admits that "[t]his was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you." He has since been charged with attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm, possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number and using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Routh's attorneys have argued that he was only identified by a witness due to the identification process law enforcement used. They claim that presenting Routh to the witness alone increases their chances of identifying him as the suspect.
"Here, the police exacerbated the suggestiveness of this procedure by presenting a suspect bound in handcuffs, in a police car, and surrounded by law enforcement," the filing states. "Furthermore, T.C.M. had dozens of law enforcement from numerous state and federal agencies watching him, thousands of stranded pedestrians on the highway awaiting this airlift and show-up, and knowledge that his identification was necessary in a case involving presidential candidate Donald Trump. All of these circumstances created a heightened pressure to make the identification."
Routh pleaded not guilty to all of the charges levied against him and faces a sentence in a maximum security prison if he is convicted.
