{"id":733620,"date":"2026-06-29T21:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/733620\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:56:08","slug":"luigi-mangiones-federal-trial-is-postponed-until-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/733620\/","title":{"rendered":"Luigi Mangione\u2019s federal trial is postponed until January"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Luigi Mangione\u2019s federal trial<\/a> in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson<\/a> will now begin in January instead of the fall, a judge said Monday at a hearing that started late because Mangione got stuck in a courthouse elevator.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett said she was postponing the federal trial so Mangione\u2019s lawyers can focus on his state murder trial<\/a>, which is scheduled to begin on Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

Jury selection in the federal case will begin on Jan. 5, instead of Oct. 13, followed by opening statements and testimony on Jan. 25, instead of Nov. 4, Garnett said at a hearing in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Garnett said she will not release the questionnaire that prospective jurors will be required to fill out until after the panel is chosen. Having it circulating online for months before jury selection \u201cwould only make what promises to be a difficult task more difficult,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Wearing a beige jail suit, Mangione looked bemused as a pair of deputy U.S. Marshals led him into the courtroom about 20 minutes after the hearing was supposed to start. He briefly gazed at the courtroom gallery, where about two dozen of his supporters<\/a> were sitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMangione was late due to elevator problems,\u201d the court said in a statement.<\/p>\n

It was the second mishap involving Mangione\u2019s arrival to a court hearing in recent weeks. <\/p>\n

A June 16 hearing in the state case was delayed a day after prosecutors failed to inform his jail<\/a> that he was needed in court.<\/p>\n

Garnett said she had hoped \u201cwith perhaps undue optimism\u201d to hold the federal trial in the fall but that \u201cwe can no longer wait to see what happens\u201d in the state case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view it\u2019s simply impossible to be moving through the jury selection process in this case while the defendant and his counsel are fully occupied by conducting the state trial,\u201d Garnett said.<\/p>\n

Mangione\u2019s lawyers declined to comment to reporters afterward.<\/p>\n

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the Dec. 4, 2024, killing. He could spend his life in prison if convicted in either case.<\/p>\n

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The 28-year-old Ivy League graduate appeared energetic and engaged during Monday\u2019s brief hearing. He watched intently at times, knitting his fingers and resting his chin on them.<\/p>\n

He spoke animatedly with his lawyers, Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo, before the proceeding began, gesturing with his hands as he sat between them at the defense table.<\/p>\n

Mangione\u2019s federal charges allege that he traveled across state lines by bus to stalk and kill Thompson. He\u2019s accused of using a cellphone, the internet and interstate highways, among other means, while planning and carrying out the attack, as well as staying at a hostel that serves out-of-state customers.<\/p>\n

At a hearing in the state case in February, Mangione spoke out against the prospect of two trials, telling the judge: \u201cIt\u2019s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mangione\u2019s lawyers had argued that back-to-back trials on a compressed timeline would violate his constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group\u2019s annual investor conference. <\/p>\n

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say \u201cdelay,\u201d \u201cdeny\u201d and \u201cdepose\u201d were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.<\/p>\n

Mangione was arrested five days later<\/a> at a McDonald\u2019s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.<\/p>\n

In January, Garnett took the death penalty off the table but ruled that prosecutors could use items collected from Mangione\u2019s backpack during his arrest as evidence against him.<\/p>\n

They included a 3D-printed pistol that investigators said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to \u201cwack\u201d an insurance executive.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Mangione\u2019s lawyers said they would pursue a psychiatric defense in the state case, but reversed course a day later. The defense, involving claims that he was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the killing, isn\u2019t allowed in federal court.<\/p>\n

Mangione has become a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre for people upset with the health insurance industry. <\/p>\n

An online fundraiser for his legal defense fund has raised more than $1.5 million and his court appearances have attracted a cadre of supporters, some of whom have worn \u201cFREE LUIGI\u201d T-shirts and green clothing \u2014 the color worn by the Mario Bros. video game character Luigi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Luigi Mangione\u2019s federal trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson will now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,98220,28,2302,793,97,694,18320,170156,2221,68464,4227,98223,315745,8640,8641,2005,1999,3,5631,3234,2226,795,21,19,22,20,25,24,16757],"class_list":["post-733620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-brian-thompson","tag-business","tag-courts","tag-general-news","tag-health","tag-homicide","tag-juries","tag-karen-friedman-agnifilo","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-luigi-mangione","tag-manhattan","tag-marc-agnifilo","tag-margaret-garnett","tag-maryland","tag-md-state-wire","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-pennsylvania","tag-trials","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}