NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione’s lawyers said his federal death penalty case should be dismissed because comments made by President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top officials have damaged his ability to get a fair trial.

Mangione, 27, is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson in December outside a midtown Manhattan hotel. He has pleaded not guilty to the federal indictment, which carries a potential death penalty.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett warned Justice Department officials last month to stop making statements that link Mangione to “left-wing” extremism, saying there could be punishments for future comments. She also asked the government to explain how the violations occurred.

Mangione’s lawyers said that Trump referred to him last month in a memorandum designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. In addition, Trump said in a Sept. 18 Fox News interview that Mangione “shot someone in the back” and “he looked like a pure assassin” while an X account affiliated with the White House reposted a video of Trump’s comments, saying “@POTUS is absolutely right.”

“The significance of these prejudicial statements is that they have life or death consequences for Mr. Mangione,” Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said in a court filing released Friday. “The statements have caused irreparable harm because the government’s sustained public commentary, designed to further a political agenda, will have a prejudicial impact on a future jury.”

Friedman Agnifilo also sought to dismiss the federal case earlier this month in another filing that focused on the collection of evidence by local Pennsylvania police that arrested Mangione in December following a five-day manhunt. Separately, Mangione also faces state murder charges.

Federal prosecutors said last week that the government officials who commented about the case were not part of the prosecution team and hadn’t violated Garnett’s order not to publicly comment on the case.

But Friedman Agnifilo said that the judge’s directive applied to Bondi and Trump.

“Unlike any of its predecessors since the Watergate era, the Department of Justice has not acted independently of the White House in this case — or in several others,” Friedman Agnifilo said.

Bondi had said she was personally involved in Mangione’s case and announced on April 1 that she directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

“There can be no doubt that the Attorney General of the United States herself is ‘associated’ with Mr. Mangione’s case,” Friedman Agnifilo said.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.

State prosecutors have said they intend to go to trial first ahead of the government, but no date has been scheduled in either case.

(Bob Van Voris contributed to this report.)

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.