"Addressing the jury on Thursday, he began with a series of vague statements and questions with little direct relevance to the events and crimes he's charged with. "Why are we here?" he asked. "Is it not to care for one another and to hold one another?" Judge Cannon interrupted and warned him, saying "What I have heard clearly goes beyond any relevant evidence in the case." And she ended his opening statement early before he was finished."
"In his opening, federal prosecutor John Shipley told jurors that Routh wanted to ensure that voters would not be able to elect Donald Trump as president in 2024. "The defendant decided to take the choice away from the American voters," he said. The plot Routh is charged with, he said, "was carefully crafted and deadly serious." Former Secret Service agent Robert Fercano, now with the Department of Homeland Security, testified about his encounter with a man he first saw as a "face in the bushes" on September 15 last year as then-Presidential candidate Trump was golfing at his West"
Ryan Routh was arrested after a Secret Service agent reported seeing him holding a rifle near where Donald Trump was golfing in September 2024. Routh faces a charge of attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate and four other counts, including attempting to assault a federal officer. He has pleaded not guilty. After dismissing his defense attorneys, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon allowed Routh to represent himself during jury selection. Routh began his opening statement with vague, tangential remarks and was interrupted and cut off by the judge. Prosecutors said the plot was carefully crafted and intended to prevent voters from electing Trump.
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