The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan has been recused from Luigi Mangione’s case.
“The Government also writes to inform the Court that United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, is recused from this matter,” attorneys from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a letter to Judge Margaret Garnett on Wednesday.
Newsweek has contacted the district for comment via email. Mangione’s attorneys have also been contacted for comment via email. Luigi Mangione in court
Mangione, 26, is facing federal and state charges in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York City hotel in December.
He pleaded not guilty to a federal murder charge last Friday. Federal prosecutors have declared their intent to seek the death penalty. Mangione pleaded not guilty to state murder and terrorism charges in December.
The letter did not explain why Clayton recused from the case, but said that Perry Carbone, the district’s criminal division chief, will serve as the attorney for the United States in the case.
“Mr. Carbone has conveyed the same to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, which confirmed that it will in turn notify the Attorney General,” the letter said.
President Donald Trump announced in April that Clayton, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, would serve as interim U.S. attorney for Southern District of New York while the administration pursues Senate confirmation for him to serve in the role full-time.
Wednesday’s letter also amended an earlier letter to Garnett that described the handling of a recorded jail call between Mangione and his attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo.
The earlier letter has said that a paralegal at the New York County District Attorney’s Office (DANY) had “immediately stopped listening” to the call after recognizing it as an attorney call.
“In fact, the paralegal listened to the entire call, then subsequently informed DANY prosecutors about the identities of the people with whom the defendant spoke,” Wednesday’s letter said.
“DANY thereafter handled the matter as described in our previous letter. Moreover, DANY notified defense counsel of these facts in an email, dated April 22, 2025, thus, counsel was aware of this information prior to arraignment.”
Mangione is next due in federal court on December 5. His next appearance in the state case is set for June 26.
No trial date has been set in either case, but his defense team have said they want the federal case to take precedent because it involves the death penalty.
he needs to be freed. that would kickstart the revolution. we need victories.
Luigi is not the shooter.
The photos they have with Luigi’s face exposed were taken 3 miles from the shooting. His jacket doesn’t match what the shooter was wearing. His backpack doesn’t match the shooter’s backpack. His eyes and eyebrows look nothing like the shooter’s. Luigi was framed. My opinion is that after the shooting, the cops had AI look for a matching image on all the cameras they had access to. Luigi’s clothes looked similar enough for the AI and the cops just rolled with it. NYPD and prosecutors are well known for framing people. Look up the Central Park Five.
The pictures from the hostel check-in, with his face, were taken almost 2 weeks before the shooting, which leaves plenty of room in the prosecution’s timeline for a change of jackets.
You can cover 3 miles in a few minutes in NYC.
He could have changed his backpack.
His face wasn’t visible in the pictures of the shooting, the ones I saw at least.
NYPD might be famous for framing people, but they also catch real murderers sometimes, in high or low profile cases.
Occam’s razor says he did shoot the guy.
He was hanging with me that afternoon, there’s no way it could’ve been him
If I understand the judicial system, the prosecution has to make that proof. So yeah as long as the trial hasn’t started there shouldn’t be any proof.
It’s very weird to see people say they love this guy for being such a revolutionary action based chad sticking-it-to-the-man straight shooter. And then you ask “Because he shot a CEO of an Insurance Company?” and they say “No.”
At least with OJ, the premise of his innocence was that he actually didn’t shoot Nicole Brown Simpson and the police were just being racist against a black celebrity. But juggling the contradiction on Luigi is just mind numbing.
First of all, I think Luigi is innocent. Honestly, and also due to the way we SHOULD think about this, innocent until PROVEN guilty.
However I also feel 0 sympathy for the CEO. Did he deserve to die? Who knows, probably. The shit insurance companies profit off of is disgusting. There’s I think an actual case for “self defense” if they ever find who actually shot him, because of the death toll that private health insurance has contributed to.
In my own experience, these are two different people.
One who hasn’t thought about the actual evidence or legal burden. They just saw on the news that the suspect is definitely guilty and their reaction is: “yeah, guilty of killing someone who deserved to die. Rock on murderer-dude.”
The other person is thinking about the law and the evidence presented so far and finds it pretty thin. They might or might not feel like healthcare CEOs should be executed, but I have not heard this type of person lauding Mangione for the killing because they are skeptical that he had anything to do with it.
It may be that your friends are less internally-consistent.
And what’s that reason?
I saw a lot of comments saying Luigi didn’t do it, but no convincing argument. Personally I think he shot the guy (but I’m open to change my mind) and that he’s some kind of hero for it.
next due in federal court on December 5. His next appearance in the state case is set for June 26.
And no trial dates set at all. They keep him in solitary and in straight jackets all day. This dude has got strength if he isn’t going mental yet. Fucking hell.
They are caught in a no-win scenario.
If they hadn’t found someone to prosecute, they would have been better off, but now that they do, they are absolutely fucked.
They can’t lose the trial. It will become open season on the rich. They can’t win the trial and execute him, it will start a holy war against the rich.
I think they want to delay as long as they can and hope the public forgets. Then they can deny him his rights, and dispose of him when the timing is better.
They can’t lose the trial. It will become open season on the rich.
That’s absurd. If there was going to be a rash of copycat shootings, Luigi’s enormous internet celebrity would have incentivized it already. The NYPD can’t afford to look like incompetent assholes, because they have a fiduciary responsibility to their paymasters on Wall Street. But whether or not Luigi is convicted will have no influence on the number of attempted CEO assassinations in the next decade.
It would be AMAZING if they set the precedence that Luigi is not guilty. The US would become the happy hunting grounds … with a reverse “Most Dangerous Game” happening everywhere.
One could dream.
They’ve managed to crack open the human psyche, a couple of tiktok videos about how he’s lame and it’s cringe to k the rich and nobody will care the state executes him.
Wtf does this mean. Eh maybe I’ll read it later cause I don’t understand it
a paralegal was listening to the whole mangione-lawyer conversation on thier phone, which broke defendant-lawyer priveleges.
