Lawyers for Luigi Mangione are accusing the Trump administration of violating their client’s right to a fair trial in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
In a pointed letter Mangione’s lawyers filed in federal court, the attorneys pointed to several comments administration officials have made about Mangione in the days following Kirk’s killing, including by the president.
“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, one of the most popular conservative activists and podcasters in the country, was assassinated while speaking at an event on a college campus on September 10. Commenters have compared Kirk’s slaying to other recents acts of political violence, including the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.
Mangione was arrested days later and charged with state and federal crimes in connection with Thompson’s killing. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. State prosecutors have presented diary entries they accuse of belonging to Mangione in pre-trial hearings, which contain references to killing a health insurance CEO to make a statement about the broader healthcare industry.
The 26 year old’s lawyers pointed to an interview President Donald Trump gave with Fox News on September 18, a little over a week after Kirk’s killing. The president said 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…this is a sickness. This really has to be studied and investigated.”
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The letter noted that an X account affiliated with the White House, Rapid Response 47, posted a video with the president’s comment on Mangione to its millions of followers a day later.
It adds that Chad Gilmartin, the Deputy Director of the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, reposted the video and wrote that Trump “is absolutely right.”
Mangione’s lawyers also pointed to comments made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on September 22. While speaking at a White House press briefing, Leavitt referred to Mangione as a “left wing assassin [who] shot United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson right in the back in New York City.”
The attorneys lastly pointed to a comment White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller made in an interview with Fox News on September 23. Miller referred to Mangione, stating 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 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,” Mangione’s lawyers wrote.
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 in the press about the case.
Representatives for the White House and Justice Department did not immediately return requests for comment.
A New York state judge dismissed state terrorism charges against Mangione last week, arguing that his alleged crime does not fit “within the definition of terrorism.”
Days later, Mangione’s attorneys filed a 114-page motion in his federal case, arguing federal prosecutors should be precluded from treating this as a death penalty case and that the indictment against him should be dismissed.