Above photo: Luigi Mangione sits next to his attorney in Manhattan Supreme Court. Steven Hirsch / AFP via Getty Images.
The judge warned the Department of Justice that future violations may result in sanctions.
A federal judge has ordered prosecutors to respond to a letter from Luigi Mangione’s legal team alleging that Trump administration officials’ recent social media posts about the case appear to have violated his right to a fair trial.
“It appears … that multiple employees at the Department of Justice may have violated Local Criminal Rule 23.1, and this Court’s order of April 25, 2025 specifically identifying the strictures of this rule,” U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett wrote in her order on September 24 in response to the letter.
The rule stipulates that “non-lawyer personnel employed by a lawyer’s office or subject to a lawyer’s supervision” in a criminal case have a duty not to release an “opinion that a reasonable person would expect to be disseminated by means of public communication” if there is a chance that the opinion will “interfere with a fair trial or otherwise prejudice the due administration of justice.”
This includes any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused, Garnett pointed out.
“The statements referenced in the [letter from Mangione’s legal team] by two high-ranking staff members of the Department of Justice, including within the Office of the Attorney General, appear to be in direct violation of this Rule and the Court’s April 25 Order,” the judge continued.
On September 19, the deputy director of the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs reposted a clip of President Donald Trump saying 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…” The DOJ staffer wrote, “@POTUS is absolutely right.” The chief of staff and associate deputy attorney general retweeted the same post. The original post was later deleted.
Future violations may result in sanctions, including “relief specific to the prosecution of this matter,” Garnett wrote.
The letter to the court from Mangione’s lawyers includes numerous examples of Trump administration officials speaking about Mangione’s alleged guilt in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last year. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
During a White House press briefing on September 22, the White House press secretary said Mangione was a “left-wing assassin [who] shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson right in the back in New York City.”
The following day, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller said on Fox News that “of course the healthcare 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.” The White House deputy chief of staff for policy reposted the clip on X.
Mangione’s attorneys wrote that the government “knows this statement to be false.”
“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 attorneys wrote.
“A recent, tragic, high-profile murder has only increased this prejudicial rhetoric,” the lawyers continued, referencing the fatal shooting of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk. “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.”
