Accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione wants hearing over which reporters get to cover his trial

Lawyers for Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, on Friday demanded a public hearing on the question of which reporters will get to cover his highly anticipated murder trial and asked for an overflow room to host a bigger audience.

In a letter to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro, Karen Friedman Agnifilo asked for a hearing over trial access and claimed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office helped to “hand-pick” which journalists would be assigned to the limited number of seats available to cover the trial.

“(Mangione) objects to a process instituted by the Court, with the involvement of the District Attorney, to hand-select which news reporters are permitted to attend the trial and which are not,” the lawyer wrote. “He objects that he was not provided with the right to be heard, prior to the Court reaching the decision to not utilize an overflow room and to allow hand-picked reporters to cover the trial.”

The DA’s office does not play a role in determining which news organizations cover trials. Space limitations, like those seen in past high-profile trials, such as Donald Trump’s 2024 prosecution over hush money payments and election fraud, are addressed by the state Office of Court Administration, which reporters work with to hash out logistics.

Earlier this month, OCA said there would be no overflow room for Mangione’s trial, as there was in Trump’s, and that 68 seats were being reserved for designated news organizations. Remaining seats on the courtroom benches for the media will be available on a first-come basis.

Mangione is charged with second-degree murder and related crimes alleging he fatally shot Thompson outside the Midtown Hilton hotel on Dec. 4, 2024, in an act of retribution against the U.S.’s expensive healthcare industry.

Mangione’s team took issue with OCA’s press plan, which was posted publicly on its website, describing it as resulting from “a secret process.”

They demanded a televised public hearing on the matter; a list of the journalists who will cover jury selection, which has not been determined; a list of the 68 reporters with general access to the proceedings; an explanation of the process employed; and other requests.

They also objected to the plan for covering jury selection. OCA said six seats would be made available for journalists to cover jury selection starting Sept. 8 and has delegated the selection process to the journalists who cover the courts on a full-time basis.

Hundreds of New Yorkers are slated to be called for jury duty in the closely watched case, leaving few seats in the courtroom. At Trump’s trial, when space was similarly limited for jury selection, a large group of reporters covered the proceedings in rotating shifts over the course of a week.

Concerns over journalistic objectivity have already arisen in the case against a defendant viewed as a folk hero to some Americans frustrated with the health insurance industry. People have lined up more than 24 hours in advance of Mangione’s hearings to get a seat in the courtroom.

The Daily News reported earlier this year on Mayor Mamdani’s office granting New York City press credentials to several superfans of Mangione who celebrated Thompson’s killing — self-dubbed “The Mangionistas” — who lack experience reporting news to the public. One of the Mangionistas, Abril Rios, has publicly stated that she does not consider herself a journalist.

Following The News’s reporting, the mayor’s office said it would review its credentialing process.

Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to the charges being tried by Bragg’s office. He faces federal stalking charges in a parallel prosecution set to go on trial in January 2027, in which he also maintains his innocence. He is being held pretrial at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.

The DA’s office declined comment. The News reached out to OCA for comment.