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by Matthew Russell Lee, Substack Book Patreon

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 31 – Luigi Mangione was presented in Federal court on December 19 on four charges, one of them death penalty eligible, for the killing of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson. Inner City Press was there, covering the case toward a book.

On April 1 DOJ announced it will seek the death penalty against Mangione.

  In the interim, after some push back, Inner City Press published a book Luigi Mangione Lone Wolf here, now Amazon here

On December 31 U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Margaret G. Garnett posed questions: "ORDER as to Luigi Nicholas Mangione: In advance of the conference scheduled for January 9, 2026, at 11:00 a.m., the Court requests that both parties be prepared for oral argument and to answer the Court's questions regarding the Defendant's motion to dismiss Counts Three and Four. The Court will allot 30 minutes each to the Government and the Defense for this argument. As of the date of this Order, given the extensive and excellent briefing by both sides on the other pending motions and the issues presented by those motions, the Court does not believe oral argument on the remaining motions is necessary or would be helpful to the Court. Second, the Court hereby ORDERS the Defendant to submit a letter by no later than Tuesday, January 6, 2026, indicating whether, in light of the Government's representation that it is only seeking to admit the Defendant's statement giving his name as Mark and Mark Rosario, he is still seeking to suppress those statements. Because the Defendant did not address this issue in his reply brief, the Court is unclear whether that suppression argument has been abandoned in light of the Government's representation. Third, the Court hereby ORDERS both the Government and the Defendant to submit a letter by no later than Tuesday, January 6, 2026, indicating whether they believe an evidentiary hearing is necessary to resolve the Government's inventory search or inevitable discovery arguments (or any other aspect of the Defendant's suppression motion regarding searches of his backpack), and, if so, what specific facts are either disputed or unknown but necessary to resolving the question. If the parties are in agreement, a joint letter will suffice. Finally, the Government may, if it wishes, submit a sur-reply of no more than five pages on the Defendant's argument regarding Ms. Bondi's relationship to Ballard Partners, made for the first time in reply. Any such sur-reply must be filed by no later than Wednesday, January 7, 2026. (Signed by Judge Margaret M. Garnett on 12/31/2025)."

More on X for Subscribers here and Substack here

In the NY case late on December 2 Inner City Press emailed, then on December 3 faxed and hand-delivered, a letter asking to be heard and for unsealing, here.

  After handing in the letter and getting it stamped at 10 am, Inner City Press stayed in and covered Justice Carro's courtroom past 5 pm. Then:

Justice Carro said, "Mr. Lee? Come up to the rail." I did. He said, I've read your letter. I intend tomorrow to decide what part of what is being presented came be made public to the Press. And on December 4 he said it would happened. And some did.

On December 18, both sides rested and Justice Carro said briefs due January 29 and March 5 with his decision due May 18.

On unsealing bid, more / extra on X for Subscribers here and Substack here

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