NEW YORK — Two high-ranking officials from the Justice Department may have breached court protocols related to prosecutors’ conduct by sharing remarks made by President Donald Trump concerning Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, announced a federal judge on Wednesday.
Judge Margaret M. Garnett noted in her order that these officials potentially contravened a local regulation that restricts what prosecutors can publicly discuss regarding a defendant’s guilt or innocence prior to a trial.
On Sept. 18, Trump went on Fox News and called Mangione “a pure assassin.”
“He shot someone in the back as clear as you’re looking at me,” Trump said. “He shot him right in the middle of the back, instantly dead.”
A video featuring Trump’s statements was shared by the White House on the social platform X, and subsequently reshared by Chad Gilmartin, a spokesperson from the Justice Department, who commented, “@POTUS is absolutely right.” Gilmartin’s post, which was eventually removed, was then shared again by Brian Nieves, an associate deputy attorney general.
The judge asked the department to explain how the violations occurred and what steps are being taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“Any further breaches may lead to sanctions, which could encompass personal financial penalties, contempt of court rulings, or specific remedies relating to this prosecution,” the judge warned.
In an email, a Justice Department spokesperson said there would be no comment.
Earlier this month, Mangione’s defense team requested that his federal charges be dropped and the possibility of the death penalty be eliminated, citing public statements made by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Mangione has entered a plea of not guilty to both state and federal charges in connection to the fatal shooting of Thompson on December 4, which took place as Thompson was arriving at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor meeting.
In the federal case, Mangione is charged with murder through use of a firearm, which carries the possibility of the death penalty, as well as stalking and gun offenses.
Defense lawyers argued in a written submission to Garnett earlier this month that Justice Department officials poisoned the case when Bondi declared prior to his April indictment that capital punishment is warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.” Bondi announced in April that she was directing Manhattan federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Mangione.
His lawyers argued that Bondi’s statements and other official actions – including a highly choreographed perp walk that saw Mangione led up a Manhattan pier by armed officers, and the Trump administration’s flouting of established death penalty procedures – “have violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and have fatally prejudiced this death penalty case.”
Defense lawyers sent Garnett a letter on Tuesday saying the government was continuing to prejudice their client’s right to a fair trial with the re-postings on social media of Trump’s comments.
They said Mangione was unjustly described by the White House press secretary as a “left wing assassin” and by another White House official as an “anti-facist” and had been referenced in a press release Monday when Trump designated a decentralized movement known as antifa as a terrorist organization.
“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 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,” they said. “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.”
The order from Garnett was not the first time a Manhattan federal judge has scolded Justice Department officials for public statements in a criminal case.
In April 2015, Judge Valerie Caproni accused then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of straying “so close to the edge of the rules governing his own conduct” when he announced a corruption case against former Democratic New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver that it was not frivolous for Silver to claim that the “media blitz” that accompanied his arrest was prejudicial.
Silver was eventually convicted on corruption charges and was sentenced to over six years in prison. In January 2022, the federal Bureau of Prisons announced that he had died in federal custody at age 77.
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