Left: Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche listens during a news conference about Kilmar Abrego Garcia at the Justice Department, Friday June 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson). Right: Luigi Mangione is escorted into Manhattan state court in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025 (AP Photo/Seth Wenig).
A federal judge has issued a stern warning to the DOJ and its top two officials that public statements by employees under their supervision supporting capital punishment are interfering with alleged murderer Luigi Mangione”s right to a fair trial and that sanctions or contempt proceedings may follow if it happens again.
The brief order Wednesday from U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett responded to the concerns raised by the defense team of Mangione, who faces both a New York state case and federal death penalty case for allegedly murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by shooting the victim in the back in the early morning hours of Dec. 4, 2024.
According to Garnett, a Joe Biden appointee, defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo was onto something when she complained Tuesday that DOJ employees, whether attorneys or not, were playing fast and loose in commenting publicly on Mangione’s death penalty case and in violation of a local rule and a court order.
Pointing to Local Criminal Rule 23.1 within the Southern District of New York, the judge emphasized in italics that “It is the duty of the lawyer or law firm, and of non-lawyer personnel employed by a lawyer’s office or subject to a lawyer’s supervision … not to release or authorize the release of … opinion which a reasonable person would expect to be disseminated by means of public communication, in connection with pending … criminal litigation with which they are associated, if there is a substantial likelihood that such dissemination will interfere with a fair trial or otherwise prejudice the due administration of justice.”
The judge evidently warmed to the defense’s concerns about a since-deleted post on X by Chad Gilmartin III, a post then retweeted by Brian Nieves. While Gilmartin was identified in the letter as the “Deputy Director of the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs” and working for U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Nieves was identified as the “Chief of Staff and Associate Deputy Attorney General” to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Chad Gilmartin post on X and Brian Nieves retweet referenced in Luigi Mangione defense’s letter (court documents).
Gilmartin’s initial post, court exhibits show, noted Bondi was pursuing the death penalty against Mangione and that President Donald Trump was “absolutely right” when stating on Fox News that Mangione “looked like a pure assassin”:
.@POTUS on the deranged fans of Luigi Mangione: “He 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.” pic.twitter.com/lbsEsgkrbQ
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 18, 2025
Mangione’s defense argued that the DOJ employees’ social media activity came just days before the White House ramped up a campaign to “baselessly link[]” Mangione to “unrelated violent events, and left wing extremist groups, despite there being no connection or affiliation.”
Taken together, the government has “indelibly prejudiced” Mangione and focused on its energies on a “greater political narrative that has no place in any criminal case, especially one where the death penalty is at stake,” the defense said.
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The judge has now responded by ordering the Trump administration to respond in a “sworn declaration” by Oct. 3 to the defense’s letter on the Gilmartin and Nieves posts to explain “how these violations occurred” and “what steps are being taken to ensure that no future violations occur.”
“The statements referenced in the September 23 Letter by two high-ranking staff members of the Department of Justice, including within the Office of Attorney General,” Garnett said, “appear to be in direct violation of this Rule and the Court’s April 25 Order.”
In addition, the judge “directed” the government to tell Blanche that any more violations of the kind “may result in sanctions” — whether “personal financial penalties, contempt of court findings, or relief specific to the prosecution of this matter” — and to provide proof the “message has been conveyed” to the deputy AG.
