A federal judge said Wednesday that President Donald Trump and other administration officials may have violated the law with their recent public statements about Luigi Mangione.
In a court filing, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett ordered the Justice Department to respond to a letter Mangione's lawyers sent Tuesday.
The letter accused the Trump administration of violating their client's right to a fair trial in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination. Mangione's lawyers referred to several comments administration officials made about Mangione in the days after Kirk's killing, some by Trump.
"The Government has indelibly prejudiced Mr. Mangione by baselessly linking him to unrelated violent events, and left-wing extremist groups, despite there being no connection or affiliation," the letter reads. "A recent, tragic, high-profile murder has only increased this prejudicial rhetoric."
Kirk, a popular conservative activist and podcaster, was assassinated as he was speaking at an event on a college campus in Utah on Sept. 10. Commenters have compared the killing to other recent acts of political violence, including the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York City hotel in December.
Mangione, 26, is charged with state and federal crimes in connection with Thompson's death. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. State prosecutors have presented diary entries they say belong to Mangione that include references to killing a health insurance CEO to make a statement about the broader health care industry.
Mangione's lawyers pointed to Trump's interview with Fox News on Sept. 18, a little over a week after Kirk was killed, in which he 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."
The letter notes that an X account affiliated with the White House, Rapid Response 47, posted a video with Trump's comment about Mangione to its millions of followers a day later.
It adds that Chad Gilmartin, the deputy director of the Justice Department's Public Affairs Office, reposted the video and wrote that Trump "is absolutely right."
Mangione's lawyers also pointed to comments White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made on Sept. 22, when she referred to Mangione as a "left-wing assassin [who] shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson right in the back in New York City."
Last, the attorneys pointed to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller's comment in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. Miller, referring to Mangione, said that "of course the health care CEO was brutally gunned down by another self-described so-called anti-fascist that was then celebrated by other self-described anti-fascists, so, of course, really communist revolutionaries."
Mangione’s lawyers wrote: "The attempts to connect Mr. Mangione with these incidents and paint him as a 'left wing' violent extremist are false, prejudicial, and part of a greater political narrative that has no place in any criminal case, especially one where the death penalty is at stake."
In April, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in Mangione’s federal case.
Mangione’s lawyers also argued that the administration was violating an April court order by making such comments publicly.
In her order Wednesday, Garnett directed the government to give a sworn declaration of “how these violations occurred."
Mangione's lawyers declined to comment. The White House referred NBC News to the Justice Department, which did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment.
A New York state judge dismissed state terrorism charges against Mangione last week, arguing that the crime he is accused of does not fit "within the definition of terrorism."
Days later, Mangione's attorneys filed a 114-page motion in his federal case, arguing that federal prosecutors should be precluded from treating it as a death penalty case and that the indictment should be dismissed.
