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.
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.
FTFY.
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.
Also leaves plenty of time for him to have left town. The only pictures they have of the man's face are from weeks before the shooting.
Eh. I think Luigi probably did it and the sketchiness around his arrest is because the cops found him with a real time facial recognition tracking system they don't want the public to know about. You might be right though, I support him even if he's innocent 😉
And that would add more weight to the other user's thought he got rolled by AI and the PD just ran with it
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.
Ah yes, the old adage about how what I believe is the simplest answer, regardless of how many assumptions you have to make to make it work.
After all, what's simpler than assuming that one specific person who only vaguely looks like the shooter in a city of millions only slightly changes their look before/after making a high profile assassination?
Yes you can cover 3 miles and he could have changed all of his clothes. He also could have been still 3 miles away when the shooting happened and not changed any of his clothes. If the police want to use the photo evidence they have NOW as evidence, they need a video of Luigi changing jackets and backpacks. Without it, they are just using a crappy AI match to target an innocent man. Did he also shave off his eyebrows just before the shooting and grow them back in a couple of days? He probably switched his Sicilian eyes for some Slavic eyes while he was at it.
Occam's razor is your argument?
What requires fewer assumptions? A person without a criminal record bolts across town while changing into slightly different clothes and s different backpack and assassinates a CEO, or that someone else did it and the police department notorious for framing people in high profile cases framed someone?
Bringing up Occam's razer when it's clearly 3 different people is crazy work.
I mean, what else was he supposed to shave his eyebrows off with so the photos match up?
You know what, at this point I'm starting to believe United Healthcare's CEO wasn't even killed, it's a setup. Think about it: the guy was divorced, probably with large sums to pay each month for his ex-wife and children who didn't like him. He made decisions that killed people, he knew about growing anti-healtcare / anti-billionaire sentiment in the US and felt his life was at risk. What better plan than faking your own death, especially in a high profile case like this when you're guaranteed that NYPD would frame someone who would take all the attention away from you while you're quietly fleeing the country. 4d chess right there.