Print
Close
Manhattan DA's office says Luigi Mangione defense spread false claims about murder trial media plan
By Greg Wehner, Stepheny Price
Published August 03, 2026
Manhattan prosecutors asked a judge Monday to correct what they called false claims by Luigi Mangione's defense team about media access to his upcoming murder trial and remind the attorneys of their ethical obligations.
The filing came days after Mangione's lawyers argued the court's plan for public and media access violates his constitutional right to a public trial and alleged the Manhattan District Attorney's Office was involved in deciding which reporters would be allowed to cover the proceedings.
Prosecutors denied the allegation, saying the office "had no role" in developing the New York State Office of Court Administration's media access plan or selecting journalists to cover the trial.
"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 to Judge Gregory Carro.
Luigi Mangione appears in court in Manhattan for a pretrial evidence hearing on Dec. 11, 2025. (William Farrington for New York Post via Pool)
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office asked Carro to remind Mangione's attorneys of their ethical obligations not to knowingly make false statements to a court or third parties, citing New York's Rules of Professional Conduct.
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
In Friday's filing, defense attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan argued the court's media access restrictions amount to a partial closure of the proceedings in violation of the First, Sixth and 14th Amendments.
TYLER ROBINSON ASKS FOR MORE SECRET HEARINGS AFTER LOSING FIGHT OVER CAMERAS IN COURT
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.
Luigi Mangione appears at a pre-trial hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court on June 17, 2026. Mangione is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. (Pool via Barry Williams for New York Daily News)
LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST
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.
SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS
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.
Luigi Mangione arrives at an evidence suppression hearing at the Manhattan Supreme Court in New York City, May 18, 2026. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters via Pool)
LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE
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.
Mangione's attorneys then fired back Monday in a response to the DA's office's letter, saying prosecutors had misunderstood their position. They insisted they are not claiming the Manhattan District Attorney's Office helped shape the court's media access plan.
Instead, they said they want a hearing to determine whether the DA's office, including its press office, communicated with the Office of Court Administration (OCA) about restrictions on press and public access in this case.
The defense acknowledged it has no firsthand knowledge that any such communications took place in Mangione's case. However, the attorneys argued they know from decades of experience working in the Manhattan DA's Office that prosecutors' press office has routinely coordinated with OCA and court security on media logistics in other high-profile cases.
As an example, they pointed to the 2017 Etan Patz murder case, saying the DA's press office worked with OCA to coordinate media access for prosecutors' post-verdict news conference. They said they are not offering that as proof similar coordination occurred here, but as evidence that the issue warrants a hearing.
Mangione's attorneys also rejected prosecutors' request that the judge remind them of their ethical obligations, calling the accusation "unfounded and deeply ironic."
They pointed to allegations they have previously raised during suppression hearings, including claims prosecutors listened to a privileged phone call between Mangione and his attorneys, obtained his medical records using what they described as a subpoena listing a fictitious court date and recorded Mangione while he was alone in an interview room at the Altoona Police Department without a court-ordered wiretap.
They also renewed their claim that prosecutors have refused to correct what they say was a false statement made by NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, who publicly claimed Mangione's mother said the alleged killing "might be something that she could see [her son] doing."
The defense again asked Carro to hold a hearing and order the preservation of any emails, text messages or other communications between the DA's office and OCA regarding press and public access to the case.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital 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.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/manhattan-da-office-luigi-mangione-defense-spread-false-claims-murder-trial-media-plan