Federal prosecutors said late Friday that public comments by members of the Trump administration should not prevent the government from pursuing its case against Luigi Mangione.
In a 121-page court filing, Justice Department prosecutors said comments and social media posts from Attorney General Pam Bondi, DOJ officials and the president should not forbid them from seeking the death penalty in Mangione’s case or warrant the dismissal of his charges.
“Pretrial publicity, even when intense, is not itself a constitutional defect,” prosecutors wrote.
Mangione, 27, is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, on the streets of midtown Manhattan last December. He was charged with two federal counts of stalking, one count of murder through the use of a firearm, and one count of a firearms offense.
He pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against him, as well as charges in pending state cases in New York and Pennsylvania in connection with Thompson’s killing.
The government’s response comes roughly a month after a lengthy back-and-forth between Mangione’s attorneys and the Justice Department over social media posts and public comments from members of the Trump administration.
In an interview with Fox News on Sept. 18, President Donald Trump said 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 a letter Mangione’s lawyers submitted in court last month.
An X account affiliated with the White House, Rapid Response 47, posted a clip from the Fox News interview to its more than 1.2 million followers in the days after the interview, according to the letter. Chad Gilmartin, the deputy director of the Justice Department’s public affairs office, also reposted the video, the letter states.
Mangione’s lawyers have argued that commentary from the DOJ and the White House has prejudiced Mangione’s right to a fair trial.
Lawyers for the Justice Department said in their own letter to the judge that they “promptly directed” the posts be taken down and that the officials in question are not part of the prosecution team.
Mangione’s lawyers have also argued that the death penalty sought by Bondi should be off the table because of her own comments on Fox News.
“The president’s directive was very clear: We are to seek the death penalty when possible,” she told the broadcaster in April ahead of Mangione’s indictment. “If there was ever a death case, this is one.”
But Friday’s filing argued that “public rhetoric by the Attorney General or the President is not a proxy for proof of prejudicial effect,” citing precedent that “in the absence of clear evidence to the contrary, courts will presume that prosecutors have discharged their duties properly.”
Lawyers for Mangione did not immediately return a request for comment on the government’s filing.
Friday’s filing also pushed back at a bid to suppress evidence from trial after the defense contended that the contents of Mangione’s backpack had been searched without a warrant.
The officers “were justified in seeking to ensure that the backpack did not contain dangerous items before transporting it,” the filing said.
Prosecutors have alleged that Mangione had a journal on him during his arrest that allegedly contains an 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.
Thompson’s killing and Mangione’s arrest prompted a broader debate about the high costs of health care in the United States.
In a previous court filing by Mangione’s attorneys, the defense accused UnitedHealth of making “continued attempts to influence” the Trump administration. They pointed to a Wall Street Journal report detailing meetings between company executives and officials in the Trump administration, plus other reporting that the company doubled its lobbying efforts after Thompson’s slaying.
UnitedHealth said it was engaging “with the administration and Congress at all levels to improve patient access and affordability” at a time when “critical decisions are being made.”
Mangione is next set to appear in court on Dec. 1 for a pretrial hearing.
