Manhattan DA: Luigi Mangione Defense Spread Media Plan Claims

Manhattan prosecutors on Monday urged a judge to address what they described as inaccurate assertions from Mangione’s legal team about press access to the trial, while also asking the court to remind defense counsel of their professional ethics duties.

The request followed a filing from Mangione’s attorneys, who argued that the court’s public and media access plan violates his constitutional right to a public trial. The defense also claimed the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office helped determine which journalists would be permitted to report from the courtroom.

Prosecutors flatly rejected that claim, stating that their office “had no role” in crafting the New York State Office of Court Administration’s media access plan or in choosing members of the press to cover the proceedings.

“The defense’s baseless accusation thus appears to be nothing more than an attempt to spread misinformation about this case and delegitimize the proceedings,” Senior Trial Counsel Joel J. Seidemann wrote in a letter submitted to Judge Gregory Carro.

In the same filing, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office asked Carro to caution Mangione’s lawyers about their obligations under New York’s Rules of Professional Conduct, including the prohibition on knowingly making false statements to a court or to others.

Mangione’s defense team — Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan — argued in a Friday submission that the court’s limits on media access effectively create a partial courtroom closure, violating protections under the First, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The attorneys objected to the lack of an overflow courtroom, limits on jury selection coverage and what they described as a process allowing only a select group of reporters to attend the trial.

They also claimed they were told only 68 journalists would receive general access to the proceedings and that the selection process had effectively been outsourced to a private attorney representing several legacy media organizations.

Mangione’s attorneys asked the court to hold a public hearing, identify the journalists selected to cover jury selection and the broader trial, explain how those reporters were chosen and detail efforts to secure an overflow courtroom.

They also asked the court to either broadcast the proceedings live or explain why that would not be permitted.

Prosecutors responded Monday that the defense had wrongly implicated the district attorney’s office in decisions made by the Office of Court Administration.

“The District Attorney’s Office had no role in developing the Office of Court Administration’s media access plan for this trial, and will have no role in selecting which news reporters attend the trial, as defense counsel surely knows from her long prior association with this office,” Seidemann wrote in the filing.

News Outlet has reached out to Friedman Agnifilo and Mangione’s spokesperson for comment on the matter.

Mangione is charged in New York state court with murder and terrorism-related offenses in the Dec. 4, 2024, fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel. He has pleaded not guilty.