Aileen Cannon oversees the Ryan Routh case “Remarkable Coincidence” – Attorney

A former prosecutor said Judge Aileen Cannon will likely recuse herself from the Ryan Routh gun case.

The Department of Justice has charged 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh with possession of a firearm as an ex-felon and possession of a firearm with an erased serial number.

Routh is alleged to have attempted to shoot Donald Trump on Sept. 15 at a Palm Beach golf course owned by the former president, and additional charges are pending.

Ty Cobb, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland and a former White House counsel in the Trump administration, said that Cannon's appointment to the Routh case was “a remarkable coincidence” and that “this cannot be made up.”

Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, oversaw his case using classified documents and denied all charges, saying the special counsel was appointed illegally. Now she has been randomly assigned to the Routh case. Newsweek sought emailed comment from Cannon's office on Wednesday.

“I would suspect that she refuses or gets the case reassigned. The defense attorney will definitely file a lawsuit if she doesn't. The defense will file a motion to transfer the case to another judge, citing their apparent bias,” Cobb said.

I'm speaking on CNN Erin Burnett OutFront On Tuesday, Cobb said the defense would likely appeal unless Cannon agreed to recuse himself.

He added that the defense would likely seek a mandamus order, in which a higher court forces a lower court to overturn a decision it made.

“It's going to be an interesting potential mandamus to try to get the 11th Circuit (court of appeals) to remove them, and it's certainly a very good appeal for the defense,” Cobb told Burnett.

“I suspect she won't be the judge in this case, but in the times we live in, that's just another crazy fact,” Cobb said.

On September 15, while Routh was not firing shots, a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle sticking out of the fence at Trump's golf course in Florida and opened fire. Routh was later arrested after police stopped his car.

Kristy Greenberg, an MSNBC legal analyst and former Manhattan district attorney, wrote Tuesday on

“Watch Judge Cannon apply basic case management skills to advance Trump’s attempted assassination case. It was never incompetence. Each time she deliberately allowed herself to be lured by Trump to delay the release of the classified documents,” Greenberg wrote.

Trump faced 40 federal charges in Cannon's court over his alleged handling of sensitive materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after he left the White House in January 2021. He was also accused of obstructing federal authorities' efforts to retrieve them.

The Republican presidential candidate had pleaded not guilty and said the case was part of a political witch hunt.

Newsweek sought emailed comment from Trump's lawyer and Cannon's office on Tuesday.

In her dismissal of the charges on July 15, Cannon pointed out that there is no constitutional support for appointing special counsel Smith, a “private citizen,” as the Justice Department prosecutor in charge of all federal charges against Trump.

The former president released a statement Monday condemning the federal prosecution of Routh and calling for the case to remain in the Florida court system.

Trump wrote that the allegations against Routh were a politically motivated “slap on the wrist.”

Newsweek sought emailed comment from the Trump campaign on Wednesday.

“The charges brought against the insane assassin are a slap on the wrist. No wonder, since the Department of Justice and the FBI have continually pursued me on gun rights since I announced my historic first campaign for the presidency,” Trump’s statement said.