Accused healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione railed about “double jeopardy” in a courtroom outburst Friday after a judge set a June 8 trial date in his headline-grabbing case.
The 27-year-old Ivy League grad was left fuming after Manhattan state Judge Gregory Carro set the early trial date — leapfrogging a separate October trial date set by a federal judge in the Southern District of New York.
“It’s the same trial twice. One plus one equals two. This is double jeopardy by any common sense definition!” Mangione shouted toward reporters as court officers led him from the room.
Luigi Mangione in court in New York City on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026.
Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, also claimed in court that they wouldn’t be ready for trial in June, prompting a scathing reply from the judge.
“Be ready,” Carro seethed from the bench.
Friday’s drama was the latest chapter in a struggle between federal and state prosecutors over who would bring the Maryland native to trial on charges of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Midtown sidewalk in cold blood in December 2024.
Mangione was charged with the murder in state court first, but the feds swooped in days later with their own case — which sources told The Post was spurred by health insurance industry leaders pressuring the Justice Department to make an example out of him.
Luigi Mangione appears in court for a hearing on Dec. 18, 2025. AP
Judge Margaret Garnett has set an October 12 trial date in the federal case, which now sets up the possibility of the accused assassin facing back-to-back trials for the same killing.
“Your honor, Mr. Mangione is being put in an untenable position,” Agnifilo told the court Friday. “This is a tug of war between two prosecution offices.”
“It’s utterly unfair that they are trying to get two bites of the apple,” the attorney added.
Luigi Mangione speaks to photographers in court on Dec. 16, 2025. Seth Wenig/UPI/Shutterstock
Mangione’s lawyers have pushed for the federal trial to go first, which would effectively bar the state trial from happening afterward because of the Empire State’s double jeopardy protections.
If the state trial happens first, the federal trial could still follow, though Mangione’s lawyers will likely renew their double jeopardy arguments in federal court.
Thompson’s relatives have asked that the accused killer go on trial in state court first, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann said in court Friday.
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Manhattan federal prosecutors claimed in late 2024, in the waning days of the Biden administration, that they had agreed to go to trial after the state case. But Judge Carro noted Friday that “it appears the federal government has reneged on its agreement to let the state, which has done most of the work in this case, go first.”
Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty, is due back in state court in May for a ruling on whether the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office can use the evidence Altoona, Pa. cops found in his backpack, including the alleged murder weapon, at his trial.
Mangione also wrote in his notebook about executing Thompson in a targeted attack meant to bring light on what the accused killer called a “parasitic” insurance industry, prosecutors say.
The words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” — mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims — were written on bullet casings found near the scene of the murder, according to police.