12 July 2018 :

Air Force Col. Vance Spath, the military judge presiding over the Guantánamo military commission death-penalty proceedings in the USS Cole case, announced his retirement effective November 1. Spath had summarily convicted Marine Brig. Gen. John Baker of contempt after Baker, the chief defense counsel for the military commissions, allowed civilian Guantánamo defense lawyers to resign from the case when they discovered a listening device in their client meeting room. A federal court later reversed that conviction. In February, Spath halted all pretrial proceedings in the case pending clairification from a higher court of the extent of his authority to act in the case.