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.
We can rally behind him as a comrade, but not as a leader. We need independent, cooperative cells. Not leaders who can be taken down.
The right elevates demagogues because they’re fascists, and obsessed with the myth of individualism. I will not be a party to fascism or demagoguery, even if it’s a leftist flavor.
You need to expand your ways of thinking beyond what you’ve been propagandized to believe is necessary or possible.
Yes sorry, leader is not what I meant. I’m not sure what the word or concept would be. A rally. Something that acts like a beacon to draw in the troops that we can all enjoy and get excited about.
The right does it because it works. They’re playing chess while we’re playing checkers. Leaders can only be taken out if we allow them to be exposed. We have to turn on them otherwise as long as we rally, they exist.
You need to expand your ways. You advocate for what we have always done without recognition of how badly it has failed. The Fall of leftist values is one of the biggest losses I’ve ever witnessed. And at every turn we never learn any lessons.
Fact is, what the right has done was successful. It’s time you accept that we failed to adapt while they did.
It also makes sense why they succeeded. They have funding. They have the think tanks. They had people behind the scenes organizing and strategically building personas and ideologies. Rejecting that as some moral stance is needless and foolish.
So we might not have the same resources. But we can be copy cats. It’s still much cheaper
This method hasn’t failed. Not even close. The bottom-up community method worked so well, the US government has assassinated, mass arrested, and even firebombed socialist orgs for being so successful.
If we cannot build a movement that is focused on bottom-up organization, we will only build another corrupt system serving demagogues.