Ryan Routh requests trial delay until Dec 2025 due to 'extraordinary volume' of evidence after arrest over Trump assassination attempt

Ryan Wesley Routh, the man charged with attempting to assassinate Trump for the second time, has requested that the continuation of his trial be delayed until December 2025 due to an "extraordinary volume" of discovery.

"Discovery delays and the extraordinary volume of discovery have made the current trial schedule incompatible with Mr. Routh’s due process rights," the court document, filed on Sunday, read, stating that the first discovery production from the government only became accessible to Routh’ counsel on November 19, with two other productions following, a large portion of which became available over the weekend.

"The government also intends to produce significant additional discovery on two one-terabyte hard drives provided by the defense, and they have advised their discovery is ongoing," the filing stated. "The pace and quantity of discovery production, and the need to process disclosed materials into a usable form, prevent counsel at this time from providing a definitive estimate of the number of hours required for review."

Routh’s attorneys wrote that the "diligent efforts of counsel will be insufficient to prepare a case of this magnitude for trial on February 10, 2025," and that "Proceeding with the scheduled trial or anytime soon thereafter– on charges punishable by life imprisonment – would result in a miscarriage of justice," requesting that the trial be pushed off to December 2025.

The filing noted that the third discovery production "required the digital transfer of files so large that counsel’s IT department was required to intervene and the materials took several days to download," and was not finished downloading until December 7. 

"The discovery received by the defense to date is voluminous and rivals that of the largest cases handled in this District. The third discovery production alone contained nearly two terabytes of data in the form of large digital downloads from phones, tablets, electronic disks, and computers," the filing stated.

The discovery, not including portions of the third production, includes electronic data downloaded from 18 phones, five phone company records, electronic data from three computers and three tablets as well as five electronic storage disks, expert data and analyses, travel records, 3,000 photographs, and more. 

They wrote that on top of this existing discovery, "the defense anticipates that additional discovery will amount to several more terabytes of data." They said that they had provided the government with a one-terabyte hard drive for copying and processing additional discovery materials for the defense, but the government has requested another one-terabyte hard drive. The filing also noted that Routh has not been able to review portions of the initial discovery that were sent to him in prison.

Routh Trial Delay Request by Hannah Nightingale on Scribd