A federal judge said Wednesday that Department of Justice officials may have violated criminal rule and a court order by making prejudicial statements about Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett issued an order responding to a letter from Mangione’s lawyers, saying that it appears that multiple DOJ employees had violated a New York criminal rule barring lawyers from making public statements that could produce prejudice in a criminal case.
Garnett said that the employees had also violated an April court order “specifically identifying the structures of this rule for counsel and directing the prosecution team to ensure that the highest levels of the Department of Justice up to and including Attorney General Bondi were aware of and understood they were bound by this Rule.”
On Tuesday, lawyers for Mangione had submitted a letter containing evidence of public statements made by DOJ employees and White House officials that they argued had ruined his right to a fair trial. Mangione’s lawyers said federal officials had “indelibly prejudiced” their client by linking him to other unrelated acts of violence, including Ryan Routh’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the recent assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
One such instance was on September 19, when deputy Director of the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs Chad Gilmartin posted on X that Trump was “absolutely right” to claim that Mangione “shot someone in the back” during an interview on Fox News. Gilmartin’s post was then shared by Brad Nieves, the chief of staff and associate deputy attorney general, and later deleted.
The letter also pointed to unfair statements the White House made against Mangione. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Mangione a “left wing assassin [who] shot United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson right in the back in New York City.” Earlier this week, in a press release accompanying Trump’s illegal designation of Antifa as a terrorist organization, the White House had included Mangione’s name.
During an interview on Fox News earlier this week, White House deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller referred to Mangione while complaining about a so-called “organized campaign of domestic terrorism” from the left.
CEO Brian Thompson “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,” said Miller, who reposted a clip of him saying this on X.
Mangione’s lawyers argued in the letter that “the Government very well knows this statement to be false as they are in possession of his alleged extensive journal writings where the writer never once mentions being anti- (or pro) fascist.”
“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,” the letter stated. “Mr. Mangione in fact does not support these violent actions, does not condone past or future political violence, nor is he in any way aligned with the group mentioned in the White House press release.
Garnett gave the government until October 3 to provide an explanation as to how the violations occurred, and what steps they would take to prevent any more. She specifically warned the deputy attorney general that further violations could result in sanctions, such as personal financial penalties or contempt of court findings.
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