The Florida federal judge overseeing the case against accused would-be presidential assassin Ryan Wesley Routh has denied the government’s motion to exclude Routh’s sniper expert witness, who found that Routh’s weapon jammed twice out of four test shots earlier this year.
Judge Aileen M. Cannon issued an eight-page ruling denying federal prosecutors’ request to prevent testimony from Michael McClay, a former instructor in the U.S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper School.
Judge Cannon, noting that the U.S. Department of Justice plans to call an FBI sniper expert during Routh’s trial, said: “As of [sic] a result of that significant overlap, and mindful of the general principle of equal treatment in the context of expert witnesses, the court is not in a position to declare that McClay’s proposed testimony is wholly irrelevant and warranting full exclusion.”
‘As the bolt went forward to cycle the second round from the magazine, the cartridge misfed and jammed at the throat of the chamber.’
Routh, who faces a Sept. 8 trial on five charges related to the alleged attempted assassination of President Donald J. Trump at his Florida golf resort, earlier sought subpoenas for McClay and two mental health experts expected to testify about Routh’s alleged lack of intent on Sept. 15, 2024.
Routh, 58, of Greensboro, N.C., is charged with the attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, brandishing a firearm in furtherance of the assassination attempt, intentionally assaulting a Secret Service officer, illegally possessing a firearm as a felon, and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He faces possible life in prison if convicted.
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Photo by Artem Gvozdkov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
The FBI said Routh set up a sniper’s nest just outside the fence near the sixth green of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Routh allegedly possessed a “military-grade” SKS rifle with a magazine containing 19 rounds with one in the chamber, ready to fire on President Trump, prosecutors said.
The FBI said Routh traveled from his home in Greensboro to West Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 14, 2024, and that on “multiple days and times” between Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, Routh’s cell phone pinged towers near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and his golf club.
A Secret Service agent riding a golf cart toward the sixth green spotted someone in the brush outside the fence. After seeing a rifle poking through the chain-link fence, the agent fired four shots toward the gunman, who fled on foot and escaped the area by car.
Judge Cannon issued an order in May allowing test-firing of Routh’s rifle, “limited to an examination of its actual or potential operability.”
As the result of the test, McClay is expected to testify that he:
loaded the magazine into the rifle, placed the weapon onto fire (position), and pulled the trigger. The rifle expelled the projectile into the berm and the bolt extracted the spent casing. As the bolt went forward to cycle the second round from the magazine, the cartridge misfed and jammed at the throat of the chamber.
McClay then repeated the firing test “with the same result — a successful fire and then a jam on the second attempt to fire the weapon,” the document said.
Prosecutors sought to bar McClay from testifying at all in the trial.
“According to the United States, McClay’s account of his live-fire test is irrelevant and unhelpful, and the same goes for his opinion that the rifle was not the ‘optimal precision sniper tool,’” the judge wrote. “As for the rest of McClay’s disclosures, the United States says they do not state actual opinions and do not otherwise provide a basis for McClay to testify.”
The court “determines that the current record does not support the United States’ broad request to exclude McClay as a witness. As it stands, McClay proposes to testify as an expert on matters that sufficiently align with the topics identified by the United States’ expert disclosures, albeit with some differences.”
Prosecutors expect to call Erich D. Smith, an FBI firearms/toolmark examiner, who tested and examined the rifle in September 2024, who will testify “that he fired it twice, and that it ‘functioned normally when tested in the Laboratory,’” the judge’s order said.
“Smith’s test fire was primarily for the purpose of conducting a search in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN),” the document said.
FBI Special Agent Nicholas Schnelle, a special weapons and tactics expert, is expected to testify “regarding, among other things, Defendant’s ‘observation point’ or ‘final firing point,’ as well as ‘why a vantage point is desirable for a particular target.’”
RELATED: Alleged would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh makes wild demand, turning upcoming trial ‘into a circus’
Photos by Getty Images
Judge Cannon reminded the parties that “a conviction for attempt does not require that a defendant actually commit the final act required for conviction for the underlying crime.”
Routh is also seeking to call and offer testimony from Heather Holmes, Psy.D., and Rodolfo Buigas, Ph.D., about his alleged “lack of intent” on Sept. 15, 2024. Reports from both mental health experts have been submitted to Judge Cannon under seal.
On Aug. 1, Judge Cannon granted a DOJ motion to submit certain prosecution evidence under seal by authority of the Classified Information Procedures Act. The judge concluded that if revealed, the evidence “could cause serious damage or exceptionally grave damages to the national security of the United States.”
Routh, who is now representing himself pro se, only has access to public docket entries.
As a pro-se defendant, Ryan Wesley Routh files some handwritten motions with Judge Aileen M. Cannon.U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Judge Cannon on Aug. 4 ordered the DOJ to file under seal the entire contents of the “Dear World” letter alleged to have been written by Routh. The FBI earlier released a redacted version of the letter, in which Routh apologized “for failing to assassinate the 45th president and offering a $150,000 bounty to ‘whomever can complete the job.’”
Judge Cannon ruled the federal jury in Routh’s trial will be partially sequestered, including lunch and dinner breaks. Their names will be kept secret, and U.S. marshals will pick them up and deliver them to a secret safe location each day.
The ruling is meant “to preserve juror anonymity and privacy in light of media coverage, prevent from potential harassment or intimidating contact, and serve the fair administration of justice under the circumstances,” the judge said.
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