Luigi Mangione supporters are back in court - this time with press credentials

A New York state judge overseeing the case involving the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO ruled that some police-collected evidence could not be shown to a jury. Outside the courthouse, attendees made hostile statements to reporters, including remarks about the victim’s children and explicit profanity directed at the victim. The attendees had appeared at prior hearings as regular supporters. This time, their behavior drew wider attention because they wore New York City-issued press credentials. Local reporters criticized the city for issuing press passes to supporters who run social media accounts, raising concerns about how credentials were granted and used.

"On Monday morning, a judge overseeing the New York state case on the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO ruled that some evidence collected by police could not be shown to a jury. It wasn't the only news coming out of the hearing. Outside the courthouse, Molly Crane-Newman, a New York Daily News reporter, captured on video several attendees giving incendiary remarks to the press."

"One of the attendees, Lena Weissbrot, said the children of Brian Thompson, who was shot and killed in December 2024, were "better off without him" and that they "needed to learn to not be like their dad." Another attendee who identified themselves only as Ashley chimed in, "I'm standing on business. Fuck Brian Thompson. I don't give a flying fuck he died." They went on to discuss the US for-profit healthcare industry and people who have died without necessary medical care."

"Ordinarily this would be a minor tabloid news item, along the lines of previous coverage of Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering Thompson. I had seen - and interviewed - the attendees in question at previous hearings while covering the case. They, like other supporters of Mangione, have become regulars at the courthouse in lower Manhattan. But this time the comments spawned a different kind of news cycle: This handful of attendees had press credentials hanging from their necks."

"Local reporters criticized the fact that the city had apparently doled out press passes to the three supporters, who run social me"

Read at The Verge