A top federal prosecutor told a Manhattan judge on Wednesday that recent social media posts from two Trump Justice Department officials that called Luigi Mangione guilty of killing a health insurance executive had not violated the judge’s order to avoid commenting publicly on the case.
The prosecutor, Sean S. Buckley, also argued that Mr. Mangione’s lawyers, who had complained about the posts, had not identified any way they had prejudiced Mr. Mangione’s case or shown that future potential jurors had been exposed to or affected by the statements.
The trial had not yet even been scheduled, Mr. Buckley said.
The prosecutor’s comments were submitted in a legal filing to the judge, Margaret Garnett of Federal District Court, who two weeks ago demanded that the government explain why Justice Department officials were publicly expressing views on Mr. Mangione’s guilt in violation of an order she had issued in April.
In that order, she warned the parties to the case to refrain from making comments that could affect Mr. Mangione’s ability to receive a fair trial and the court’s ability to select an impartial jury.
Mr. Mangione is accused of killing Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, who was gunned down minutes before an investors’ meeting at a Midtown Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4. When Mr. Mangione was captured five days later, the authorities said he had a manifesto decrying America’s “parasitic” insurance industry and its system of for-profit health care.
Last month, a state judge in New York dismissed terrorism charges against Mr. Mangione, which included a count that could have put him in prison for the rest of his life. He still faces a murder charge, to which he has pleaded not guilty. In the parallel federal case, he has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge that carries a potential penalty of death.
Mr. Buckley, in his filing on Wednesday, said the two Justice Department officials who had made public comments were not members of the prosecution team, did not report to the prosecutors and possessed no “operational role” in the investigation. Thus, Mr. Buckley wrote, their statements had not violated court rules because they were made by people “not associated with this matter.”
Mr. Buckley wrote that upon becoming aware of the social media posts, the department had promptly directed that they be removed.
Mr. Mangione’s legal team declined to comment on the government’s response.
The team had complained to Judge Garnett last month about comments President Trump and other government officials had made soon after the Sept. 10 assassination of Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist.
“The government has indelibly prejudiced Mr. Mangione by baselessly linking him to unrelated violent events and left-wing extremist groups, despite there being no connection or affiliation,” Mr. Mangione’s lawyers wrote.
Those actions are “part of a greater political narrative that has no place in any criminal case, especially one where the death penalty is at stake,” the lawyers said.
The lawyers noted that on Sept. 18, Mr. Trump declared on Fox News that Mr. Mangione had “shot someone in the back as clear as you’re looking at me.” A White House-affiliated social media account posted the statement, which was then reposted the next day by a Justice Department spokesman, Chad Gilmartin, with the added comment that the president “is absolutely right.”
On Sept. 20, another Justice Department official reposted the statement on his own account.
The judge’s original order, in late April, that officials not speak publicly about the case followed a flurry of statements by Attorney General Pam Bondi about the government’s decision to seek the death penalty against Mr. Mangione.
On April 1, even before Mr. Mangione had been indicted, Ms. Bondi said in a news release that she had directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty “as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.” On “Fox News Sunday,” she had also discussed the decision. “The president’s directive was very clear: We are to seek the death penalty when possible,” she said.
In a court hearing on April 25, Judge Garnett cautioned the lawyers on both sides against making public comments that could affect Mr. Mangione’s ability to receive a fair trial and the court’s ability to select a fair jury.
She said she was specifically instructing the government to convey her directive to Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and that he convey it to Ms. Bondi “and any of her subordinates at Main Justice.”
In her order last month, Judge Garnett directed prosecutors to advise the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, that any further violations could result in sanctions that could include personal financial penalties, contempt of court findings or what she called “relief specific to the prosecution of this matter.”
Judge Garnett did not elaborate, but Mr. Mangione’s lawyers have asked in court papers that she dismiss the indictment and that prosecutors be barred from seeking capital punishment.
In his court filing on Wednesday, Mr. Buckley said he had personally communicated the court’s admonition to Mr. Blanche.