Luigi Mangione’s lawyers allege that the Trump administration is using their client as a “pawn to further its political agenda” and prejudicing his case in a new court filing arguing to dismiss the federal indictment or the government’s notice of intent to seek the death penalty.
In a Friday letter submitted in New York federal court, Mangione’s attorneys argued that social media posts and public comments made by the Department of Justice and White House have prejudiced Mangione’s right to a fair trial.
Mangione, 27, is facing two federal counts of stalking, one count of murder through the use of a firearm and one count of a firearms offense. He is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, on the streets of midtown Manhattan last December.
“Mr. Mangione is one young man, alleged to have acted alone, fighting for his life in three separate cases, against the full force and might of the entirety of the United States Government that is actively and persistently using his him as a pawn to further its political agenda,” Mangione’s defense lawyers wrote. “This is the very definition of prejudicial where the consequence is death.”
The letter marked the latest twist in an ongoing back-and-forth between Mangione’s attorneys and the federal government over the posts and public comments.
In an interview with Fox News on Sept. 18, President Donald Trump said that Mangione “shot someone in the back as clear as you’re looking at me. … He shot him right in the middle of the back — instantly dead. … This is a sickness. This really has to be studied and investigated,” according to Friday’s letter.
A day later, an X account affiliated with the White House, Rapid Response 47, posted a clip from the Fox interview to its more than 1.2 million followers, according to Friday’s letter.
Mangione’s lawyers said in the Friday letter that the video was then reposted by Chad Gilmartin, the deputy director of the Justice Department’s public affairs office. Gilmartin wrote that Trump “is absolutely right” in his repost, a screen grab of which is included in the letter.
The Department of Justice declined to comment, and the White House referred NBC News to the Justice Department.
After complaints from Mangione’s attorneys about the comments, federal prosecutors said in a letter addressed to the judge earlier this month that they “promptly directed” the posts to be taken down once they became aware of them. They added that the officials are not part of the prosecution’s team.
“They operate entirely outside the scope of the prosecution team, possess no operational role in the investigative or prosecutorial functions of the Mangione matter, and are not ‘associated’ with this litigation,” prosecutors then said.
Prosecutors allege that Mangione was the masked man seen in security footage fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO last year.
Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania days later, concluding an interstate manhunt that gripped the nation. Prosecutors allege that when they arrested Mangione, he had a diary on him that allegedly contains a diary entry suggesting that someone should “wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention.” Thompson was killed hours before UnitedHealthcare was set to hold an annual investor conference.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against him. Mangione has also pleaded not guilty in his pending state cases in New York and Pennsylvania in connection with the December incident.
In their letter on Friday, Mangione’s attorneys also pointed to comments Attorney General Pam Bondi made on Fox News in April to bolster their argument.
“If there was ever a death case, this is one…this guy is charged with hunting down a CEO, a father of two, a married man, hunting him down and executing him,” Bondi said, according to the letter. “I feel like these young people have lost their way. I was receiving death threats for seeking the death penalty on someone who was charged with an execution of a CEO.”
That month, Bondi directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Mangione.
“There can be no doubt that the Attorney General of the United States herself is ‘associated’ with Mr. Mangione’s case, as the Attorney General is the only individual in the DOJ authorized to seek the death penalty in any case,” Mangione’s lawyers wrote.
Mangione’s lawyers have previously argued that federal prosecutors should be precluded from treating it as a death penalty case due to Bondi’s comments.
In their letter on Friday, Mangione’s legal team also accused UnitedHealth of making “continued attempts to influence” the Trump administration. The letter pointed to a Wall Street Journal report detailing meetings between company executives and officials in the Trump administration. Mangione’s lawyers also pointed to reporting that the company doubled its lobbying efforts in the months after Thompson’s slaying.
“UnitedHealth’s continued financial viability depends upon maintaining the narrative that Mr. Mangione—rather than the company or its business practices—is the villain,” the letter reads. “Accordingly, the defense respectfully requests discovery regarding these meetings to determine whether the ‘other issues’ discussed between UnitedHealth and the government precipitated coordinated efforts by the White House and the Department of Justice to malign and prejudice Mr. Mangione.”
UnitedHealth did not immediately return a request for comment.