Trump assassination suspect Ryan Routh barred from asking jurors bizarre questions

A Florida judge Monday rejected a slew of bizarre and irrelevant questions that would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh wanted to ask potential jurors ahead of his trial — including how they would handle a turtle crossing the road while driving.

Routh, 59 — who is representing himself after firing his lawyers — wanted to ask the pool of possible jurors their opinions on pro-Palestinian student activism and Trump’s proposal for the US to take over Greenland.

And he told the judge he could gain insight about potential panelists’ values if he asked them what they would do if a turtle crossed the road while they were driving.

“They are all really off base and have no relevance to the jury selection process,” federal Judge Aileen Cannon said of Routh’s queries, according to ABC News.

Routh — a former handyman with no legal training — defended the questions with confidence, but Cannon interrupted him several times and told him to follow courtroom rules that would apply to any lawyer in her court.

Routh is slated to be in the Fort Pierce, Fla. courtroom for the next three days as he and prosecutors work to whittle down a pool of around 180 potential jurors to just 12 — with an additional four alternate jurors.

Opening statements are expected to begin on Thursday and the trial is slated to last for around a month.

Routh earlier also informed the judge that two of his proposed witnesses wouldn’t be able to testify because one had at trip planned abroad and another is scared if he testifies he’ll be deported to his home country of Costa Rica.

Routh — who is accused of laying in wait to shoot President Trump as he was golfing last year — has chosen to exercise his legal right to represent himself at trial, instead of using a defense attorney, despite Cannon “strongly” urging him not to.

If recent court filings by Routh are any indication of how the case will play out, jurors could be in for a wild trial.

In a bizarre recent court filing, Routh challenged Trump to a high-stakes golf match, where if the president won “he can execute me” and if Routh won “I get his job.”

And in a prior jailhouse letter to Cannon, Routh asked why his case wasn’t eligible for the death penalty and suggested he could be used in a prisoner exchange with Hamas, Iran, China or Russia.

Still, Cannon at a hearing last week warned Routh he would be on a tight leash and laid out how he should conduct himself in front of the jury, including that he should wear business formal clothes, use the lectern when addressing them and questioning witnesses.

She also told him her courtroom marshals would be ready to act if he makes “any sudden movements” — especially when guns and ammo from the assassination attempt were presented as evidence.

He will also be bound by the strict rules of trial about what topics can be raised and what questions can be asked of witnesses.

While Routh fired his lawyers in July, the judge has ordered that he have attorneys on “standby.”

Routh — who has been behind bars in a Miami federal lockup since his arrest — has pleaded not guilty to five charges accusing him of camping out in a sniper’s nest for 12 hours on the edge of Trump International West Palm Beach on Sept. 15, 2024 as Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, was golfing.

A Secret Service agent scouting ahead of Trump spotted Routh’s SKS assault rifle and opened fire on him, prompting him to flee before he was able to take a shot at Trump.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Cannon is the same judge that was assigned to the since-dismissed criminal case against Trump for allegedly stockpiling confidential documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after he left office.

The judge tossed out all the criminal charges on the grounds special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed to prosecuted the case.

With Post wires