The legal team for Luigi Mangione is accusing the Trump administration of using their client as a “pawn to further its political agenda” as they fight to have his federal indictment or possible death penalty dropped.
In a court filing submitted Friday in New York, Mangione’s lawyers argued that public comments and social media posts from both the White House and the Department of Justice have made it impossible for him to get a fair trial.
Mangione, 27, faces serious charges, including two federal counts of stalking, one count of murder through the use of a firearm, and one firearms offense. Prosecutors say he fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, on a Manhattan street 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 him as a pawn to further its political agenda,” his attorneys wrote. “This is the very definition of prejudicial where the consequence is death”, reported 6abc.
The letter marks the latest battle in what’s become a tense back-and-forth between Mangione’s defense team and the federal government over political influence and public commentary.
The defense pointed to an interview President Donald Trump gave to Fox News on September 18. During that interview, 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 the filing.
A day later, an X account affiliated with the White House, called Rapid Response 47, shared a clip of Trump’s comments to its 1.2 million followers. The defense says that post was then reposted by Chad Gilmartin, deputy director of the Justice Department’s public affairs office, who added, “Trump is absolutely right.”
The letter included a screenshot of Gilmartin’s repost as evidence of what the defense calls government interference and bias. The Department of Justice declined to comment on the filing, and the White House referred NBC News to the DOJ for any response.
Federal prosecutors later told the judge that they had “promptly directed” the posts to be deleted once they were made aware of them, adding that the officials involved had nothing to do with the Mangione case.
“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 wrote.
Still, Mangione’s attorneys maintain that the damage is done, arguing that the public comments from top officials have already tainted the case and endangered their client’s right to an impartial trial.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, say Mangione was the masked gunman caught on surveillance footage shooting Thompson in cold blood last year. The case has now become as much about courtroom evidence as it is about politics — and whether justice can truly be blind when the nation’s highest offices weigh in.