A U.S. judge has decided to postpone the trial for the individual accused of the second assassination attempt targeting President-elect Donald Trump. The trial, originally scheduled for February 10, has been pushed back to September 8, 2025, as confirmed in a court order issued on Monday.
The suspect in question, Ryan Routh, had his legal team request the trial delay due to the extensive amount of evidence involved in the case. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, based in Florida, approved a postponement but deemed the defense’s proposal to shift the trial to December 2025 as excessive. Consequently, the trial is now set to proceed before a jury in early September 2025.
Routh, aged 58, is currently facing five federal charges, with the most serious being the attempted assassination of a prominent presidential candidate. Allegations suggest that Routh positioned himself armed with a firearm near a golf course owned by Trump in Florida back in September, allegedly with the intention of carrying out the assassination during the presidential campaign. Routh has maintained his innocence, entering a plea of not guilty to all charges brought against him.
Judge Cannon, who is overseeing this case, notably presided over a previous legal matter involving Trump concerning the alleged improper retention of classified documents at the conclusion of his initial term. This prior case against Trump has since been dismissed.
This information was reported by Andrew Goudsward and Costas Pitas and has been edited by Chris Reese. The initial version of this article was published on USA TODAY under the title “Trial for suspect in second Trump assassination attempt delayed.”
