An HHS-commissioned study found an association between support for &#8220;radical gender ideology&#8221; and a greater willingness to justify political violence. 
The <a href="https://opa.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2026-08/gender-ideology-report.pdf">report</a>, released Wednesday by the Department of Health and Human Services, was written by researchers affiliated with Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute, and the Network Contagion Research Institute.
The preregistered survey asked more than 1,200 U.S. adults to rate their agreement with five transgender-affirming positions and whether six politically motivated acts of violence could be justified.
Those scenarios involved killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, killing President Donald Trump, killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, setting fire to ICE buildings, damaging wealthy people&#8217;s property, and attacking police officers.
Strong support for the transgender-affirming positions was positively correlated with greater justification for all six acts. The strongest association involved killing Trump, which had a correlation of 0.35, followed by setting fire to ICE buildings at 0.34 and killing Kirk at 0.31. 
The correlations were weaker for damaging wealthy people’s property at 0.28, killing Thompson at 0.27, and attacking police at 0.23. 
The researchers measured left-wing authoritarianism separately, which the report describes as a psychological disposition characterized by aggression toward perceived oppressors, support for censorship and institutional enforcement, and hostility toward conventional institutions.
Left-wing authoritarianism showed a stronger association with justification of political violence, with correlations ranging from 0.47 to 0.54 across the six scenarios.
Both transgender-affirming beliefs and left-wing authoritarianism remained significantly associated with greater justification of all six acts after researchers controlled for respondents&#8217; political identities.
“Together, these findings support the paper’s core claim: gender ideology may function as an ideological accelerant, telling left-wing authoritarian psychology who the enemy is, why the situation is urgent, and — in those already disposed toward force — that violence is legitimate,” the researchers wrote.
Both the researchers and HHS <a href="https://health.gov/hhs-releases-study-finding-individuals-who-associate-left-wing-authoritarian-beliefs-and-radical">acknowledged</a> that the study found an association but could not establish causation.
The report comes as the political views and transgender associations of several people accused or convicted of targeting prominent conservatives face ongoing scrutiny.
Tyler Robinson, the man charged with Kirk&#8217;s September 2025 murder, was living with a male roommate and romantic partner who identified as transgender, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Robinson sent his roommate messages confessing to the shooting and saying he &#8220;had enough of [Kirk&#8217;s] hatred.&#8221; Robinson’s mother <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-the-disturbing-texts-between-tyler-robinson-and-his-trans-love-after-charlie-kirk-assassination">previously told investigators</a> that her son became more political and left-leaning in the year before Kirk&#8217;s killing and had grown more supportive of pro-transgender views.
Ryan Michael English, 26, also known as Raleigh Jane English, was sentenced last week to 73 months in prison for bringing a knife and two improvised incendiary devices to the U.S. Capitol as part of a plot to kill then-Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent.
English, a man who identifies as a transgender woman, approached a U.S. Capitol Police officer in January 2025 and turned himself in. English later pleaded guilty to two federal weapons charges.
A second study is currently being designed to further investigate the correlation between left-wing ideology, trans-ideology, and political violence.

Diverse people holding transgender flags

HHS Study Links Transgender Ideology To Justification Of Political Violence

Charlie Kirk

Luigi Mangione

Political Violence

Research Study

Transgender

Tyler Robinson

In a jaw-dropping courtroom confession, Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty Friday to federal stalking charges carrying a potential life sentence in connection with the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a move that could have major implications for his upcoming New York murder trial.
&#8220;After years of enduring severe pain in my back and seeing others too, I learned UnitedHealth would hold its conference,” Mangione said in a New York City courtroom. “I researched the event online. I observed the conference of the largest health care company would be attended by executives, not doctors, nurses or patients. I traveled to Manhattan and emailed leadership posing as an investor managing $58 billion.”
&#8220;Before traveling to New York, I used a 3-D printer to make a gun. I traveled to New York with the intent to shoot Brian Thompson. On the morning of December 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan. … I knew what I was doing,&#8221; he added.
The guilty plea marks a dramatic turnaround for the 28-year-old, who has long maintained his innocence and is now pursuing a legal theory that could potentially derail his separate, high-stakes murder trial set to begin September 8 in New York state court.
&#8220;Mr. Mangione is prepared to plead guilty to the indictment at this time,&#8221; Mangione&#8217;s attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo told the judge. Mangione then confirmed that he is pleading guilty to the stalking charges.
Brian Thompson’s family called the plea “an important step towards justice” for the father who left behind a wife and two children.  
“While nothing will ease the pain of losing him, we are grateful that the federal justice system has held the person responsible for this heinous act accountable,” the family said in a statement. “Now we look to the court to ensure that sentencing reflects the severity of this crime. We remain mindful that additional proceedings in New York and Pennsylvania are still to come, and we will continue to seek the justice Brian deserves.&#8221;
Mangione has never apologized for the killing or expressed remorse.
Ahead of Friday’s hearing, the DOJ was unsure whether Mangione would plead guilty but was prepared to seek a life sentence if he did, a source familiar with the matter told The Daily Wire.
In his federal case, the Maryland native faced one count of interstate stalking resulting in death and one count of stalking through the use of interstate facilities resulting in death. Both charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/luigi-mangione-charged-stalking-and-murder-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-and-use">according to the Department of Justice.</a> A judge tossed out a firearms charge that would’ve made Mangione eligible for the federal death penalty. The federal trial was scheduled to begin on January 5, 2027.
“Mangione planned his attack for months and stalked his victim for days before murdering him — methodically planning when, where, and how to carry out his crime,” then-Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at the time.
In state court, Mangione faces eight charges, including second-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. Following his guilty plea in federal court, his lawyers may argue that New York’s double-jeopardy protections prevent state prosecutors from trying him for murder because the state charges stem from the same criminal act as the federal case.  
The Constitution generally protects defendants from being prosecuted twice for the same offense. Still, Mangione’s state and federal cases fall under the “separate sovereigns” exception to double jeopardy, <a href="https://abcnews.com/US/luigi-mangione-federal-guilty-plea-expected-announced-friday/story?id=135608406">according to ABC News.</a> Under the doctrine, the federal government and New York are considered separate sovereigns, allowing both to prosecute the same defendant for the same conduct under their respective laws.
“If a plea in the Federal case against Luigi Mangione is indeed being announced tomorrow, it sure seems the timing is intended to block the State trial,” Rich Schoenstein, a trial lawyer, <a href="https://x.com/LawfulRiches/status/2087899313259069841?s=20">said</a> on X. “Whether that succeeds remains to be seen.” 
“The State is a separate sovereign, and the charges are arguably quite different. If New York wants the trial to go forward anyway, it has an argument, and the issue will be hotly contested,” he added. 
The legal drama comes days after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/luigi-mangione-trial-gets-anonymous-jury-over-fears-of-intimidation">The Daily Wire</a> reported that the high-profile murder case will proceed with an anonymous jury and expanded courtroom access after a judge finalized several key details ahead of the September proceedings.
Thompson was gunned down in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024, leading to a five-day manhunt that ended with Mangione’s arrest in rural Pennsylvania, more than 270 miles from the shooting scene.
At the time of his arrest, Mangione possessed “fake ID used by the suspect, the gun they believe was used in the shooting and a handwritten ‘claim of responsibility,’ authorities have said,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/luigi-mangione-pleads-not-guilty-as-doj-seeks-death-penalty?author=Nathan+Gay&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Luigi+Mangione+Pleads+Not+Guilty+As+DOJ+Seeks+Death+Penalty">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported. 
Mangione’s targeting of Thompson appears meticulously planned, according to the DOJ, and three 9mm shell casings recovered from the crime scene had the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” written on them, an apparent reference to a 2010 book criticizing insurance industry tactics, according to the NYPD.
The case has drawn widespread public attention, with supporters of Mangione continuing to gather outside the New York City courthouse nearly two years later to rally behind the accused assassin.
“I support Luigi whether or not he did it. So for me, I always knew this could be on the table. So I wouldn&#8217;t really be phased by one,” a white woman supporting Mangione <a href="https://x.com/nypost/status/2088268716186169596?s=20">said</a> Friday of a possible plea. “This is about a movement. It is about Luigi, but it&#8217;s also about the conversation he started.”

Luigi Mangione Lays Out Chilling Step By Step Plot To Kill Brian Thompson

Brian Thompson

Crime

Healthcare

New York

News

Luigi Mangione is expected to plead guilty Friday to federal stalking charges carrying life sentences in connection with the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — a move that could have major implications for his upcoming murder trial. 
A guilty plea would mark a dramatic turnaround for the 28-year-old, who has long maintained his innocence and previously pleaded not guilty as he barrels towards a separate high-stakes murder trial in New York state court. 
The Department of Justice does not know whether Mangione will agree to plead guilty, but prosecutors would pursue a life sentence if he does, a source familiar with the matter told The Daily Wire.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/nyregion/luigi-mangione-guilty-plea-federal.html">stressed</a> that negotiations over a potential plea remain “sensitive” and could collapse at any moment. 
In his federal case, the Maryland native faces one count of interstate stalking resulting in death and one count of stalking through the use of interstate facilities resulting in death. Both charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/luigi-mangione-charged-stalking-and-murder-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-and-use">according to the Department of Justice.</a> A judge tossed out a firearms charge that would’ve made Mangione eligible for the federal death penalty.
“Mangione planned his attack for months and stalked his victim for days before murdering him — methodically planning when, where, and how to carry out his crime,” then-Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at the time. 
In state court, Mangione faces eight charges, including second-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. If he pleads guilty in federal court, his lawyers may argue that New York’s double-jeopardy protections prevent state prosecutors from trying him for murder because the state charges stem from the same criminal act as the federal case, the Times reported. 
“If a plea in the Federal case against Luigi Mangione is indeed being announced tomorrow, it sure seems the timing is intended to block the State trial,” Rich Schoenstein, a trial lawyer, <a href="https://x.com/LawfulRiches/status/2087899313259069841?s=20">said</a> on X. “Whether that succeeds remains to be seen.” 
“The State is a separate sovereign, and the charges are arguably quite different. If New York wants the trial to go forward anyway, it has an argument, and the issue will be hotly contested,” he added. 
The legal drama comes days after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/luigi-mangione-trial-gets-anonymous-jury-over-fears-of-intimidation">The Daily Wire</a> reported that the high-profile murder case will proceed with an anonymous jury and expanded courtroom access after a judge finalized several key details ahead of the September proceedings.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro ruled that the identities of jurors will be kept from the public during the trial, which is scheduled to begin September 8 and is expected to last roughly six weeks. 
The anonymous jury comes as prosecutors warn that Mangione’s sizable and highly vocal supporter base could pressure witnesses and potential jurors. 
“The media attention surrounding this case — and the efforts of some of the defendant’s supporters both to intimidate witnesses and to interfere with the functioning of the jury — will place extraordinary pressure on witnesses and potential jurors alike,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann wrote in a Monday letter to Carro obtained by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/prosecutors-warn-luigi-mangione-supporters-may-intimidate-witnesses-jurors-murder-trial">Fox News</a>.
Prosecutors had asked the court to limit access to the proceedings and raised concerns that supporters could secretly record proceedings in an overflow room and distribute the footage. Carro nevertheless ordered that an overflow room be made available for members of the media and the public, after Mangione’s attorneys argued that limiting courtroom access would unfairly restrict coverage of the case.
The judge also warned that anyone who takes out a cellphone in either the courtroom or the overflow room will be removed.

Luigi Mangione Appears In Court Ahead Of September Trial For United Healthcare CEO Killing

Luigi Mangione Weighs Unusual Plea Move That Could Derail State Murder Trial

Luigi Mangione Could Plead Guilty To Federal Charges To Derail State Murder Trial

Courts

Murder

murder trial

trial

True Crime

United Healthcare

Luigi Mangione’s high-profile murder trial will proceed with an anonymous jury and expanded courtroom access after a judge finalized several key details Tuesday ahead of the September trial.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro ruled that the identities of jurors will be kept from the public during the trial, which is scheduled to begin September 8 and is expected to last roughly six weeks. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/luigi-mangione">Mangione</a>, 28, has pleaded not guilty to eight state charges, including second-degree murder, in the December 4, 2024, shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
The anonymous jury comes as prosecutors warn that Mangione’s sizable and highly vocal supporter base could pressure witnesses and potential jurors. “The media attention surrounding this case — and the efforts of some of the defendant’s supporters both to intimidate witnesses and to interfere with the functioning of the jury — will place extraordinary pressure on witnesses and potential jurors alike,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann wrote in a Monday letter to Carro obtained by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/prosecutors-warn-luigi-mangione-supporters-may-intimidate-witnesses-jurors-murder-trial">Fox News</a>.
Prosecutors had asked the court to limit access to the proceedings and raised concerns that supporters could secretly record proceedings in an overflow room and distribute the footage. Carro nevertheless ordered that an overflow room be made available for members of the media and the public, after Mangione’s attorneys argued that limiting courtroom access would unfairly restrict coverage of the case.
The judge also warned that anyone who takes out a cellphone in either the courtroom or the overflow room will be removed. The decision represents a compromise between the defense’s desire for broad public access and prosecutors’ concerns about security and witness intimidation.
The defense previously requested that the trial be televised, although New York law generally does not permit cameras in the courtroom. Jury selection will also begin September 8, with Carro ordering the prosecution and defense to work together on a questionnaire designed to identify potential jurors who may have biases that could affect their ability to serve.
That process is expected to be particularly contentious given the circumstances surrounding Thompson’s killing and the public reaction to Mangione.
Prosecutors allege Mangione targeted Thompson because of his animus toward the health insurance industry. They say he tracked Thompson’s movements before he allegedly shot him from behind as the executive walked toward the New York Hilton Midtown, where UnitedHealthcare was holding an investor conference. Mangione was arrested days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an employee alerted police.
Mangione’s defense briefly announced in June that it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-defense-strategy-luigi-mangione-is-betting-everything-on">planned</a> to pursue a psychiatric defense before <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/luigi-mangione-defense-abandons-controversial-courtroom-tactic">withdrawing</a> that strategy a day later. The state case is separate from the federal charges Mangione faces in connection with the killing. The Justice Department had previously sought the death penalty in the federal case, but that option was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-judge-says-prosecutors-cant-pursue-death-penalty-against-luigi-mangione?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Federal+Judge+Says+Prosecutors+Can%E2%80%99t+Pursue+Death+Penalty+Against+Luigi+Mangione">removed</a> in January after a federal judge ruled against pursuing a capital prosecution.
Mangione is expected to face trial in the federal case next year. With jury selection now weeks away, Tuesday’s hearing marks one of the final stages before the state trial begins.

Supporters of Luigi Mangione

Luigi Mangione Trial Gets Anonymous Jury Over Fears Of Intimidation

Luigi Mangione Trial Set For Anonymous Jury Amid Intimidation Concerns

assassination

Court

criminal

criminal investigation

Criminal Justice

Gun Violence

New York City

UnitedHealthcare

This is republished with permission from Pirate Wires, an independent, new-media website “reporting at the intersection of technology, politics, and culture.”
Readers can subscribe <a href="https://www.piratewires.com/">here</a>. The original essay is published <a href="https://www.piratewires.com/p/luigis-the-most-beautiful-person">here</a>.
***
About a mile and a half from where Luigi Mangione (allegedly) murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and a schlep from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where the (alleged) assassin is being held as he awaits state and federal trials, Luigi: The Musical finished its six-night New York City run at The Green Room 42 in the YOTEL New York Times Square.
I would have skipped Luigi — I’d prefer a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS2a6XwpVHc">Assassins</a> instead — but when the likes of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1127991796010441">Bill Maher</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/KW1FdPok54k?si=WZRIn-YZlGkZP2jW">Stephen Colbert</a> start promoting a show that mentions “MILFs and Bottoms for Luigi,” I figure I should go.
My plan was to interview audience members about the increasing tide of <a href="https://www.piratewires.com/p/assassination-culture">political violence</a> in America — I imagined they’d have revealing opinions to share, given that they’d taken time out of their summers to see a show that, according to its press release, “doesn’t glorify violence, it interrogates it.”
Personally, I can’t think of a more appropriate time to “interrogate” violence — since the murder of Charlie Kirk, we’ve seen assassination attempts on Sam Altman, multiple “security incidents” involving President Trump (both foreign and domestic), and <a href="https://www.popehat.com/p/a-bit-of-tedious-drama-at-bluesky">Bluesky musings</a> about a world without Elon Musk.
But what I found at the Luigi musical was less “interrogation” and more… applause.
I missed opening night, but the night I went was sold out. The audience looked like your regular mix of off-Broadway theater fans. (Translation: I’ll bet I was the only one who hadn’t seen Heated Rivalry.)
Although the title of the show is Luigi: The Musical, the title character shares the stage with two other high-profile convicts — Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried — who were held in the same unit as Luigi for three months. Thus the inspiration for Luigi creator Nova Bradford (who, by day, works as a “health systems researcher” at Stanford). She wondered: what if the respective assassin, crypto fraudster, and hip-hop mogul / <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1417438/sean-diddy-combs-trial-defense-attorney-addresses-baby-oil">baby oil aficionado</a> hung out behind bars? (And of course, <a href="https://www.sharkpartymedia.com/luigi">make it “queer”</a>: Sam’s played by a they/he; Diddy’s a blacktress in a doo-rag.)
Before the show, I chatted up a bloke from New Zealand who’d had trouble getting rid of an extra ticket. His friends had declined because the show seemed like it was “glamorizing a guy who committed murder in cold blood.”
“That’s not a great thing,” he agreed, but he was “very interested to see how tastefully it’s done.”
“The whole topic was so absurd that I just had to go,” an elderly woman told me. Her friend had brought her along. “I’ve been following the story [of Brian Thompson’s murder]. I’ve been finding it so intriguing,” she said. “I have mixed feelings about it. I think to kill anybody is unfair, but I understand the medical industry is so terrible and getting worse.”
This is the moral quandary I was expecting to hear. After Thompson’s murder, I heard it everywhere. I can’t count the number of politicians who took to social media and the press with some version of Chris Rock’s bit, “<a href="https://youtu.be/L4LlJNGRIoc?si=l2l6itFheWOy7Kve">O.J., I Understand</a>.” Senator Elizabeth Warren said, “Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far.” (She walked back that statement, but we understood what she was getting at.) Senator Bernie Sanders called the murder <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/warren-sanders-brian-thompson-health-care_n_6758bc0fe4b063b52a9a524b">“outrageous” and “unacceptable”</a> with the caveat that he understood it, too. “This is not to say that an act of violence is justified,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez <a href="https://x.com/alanhe/status/1867274875859349565?s=20">said on the steps of the Capitol</a>, “but I think for anyone who is confused or shocked or appalled, they need to understand that people interpret and feel and experience denied claims as an act of violence against them.”
Politicians were willing to show a nuanced understanding of an act of murder, but none were willing to take responsibility for the policies that had helped create this “violent” healthcare industry in the first place. Remember: Bernie Sanders voted “yes” to the Affordable Care Act, which accelerated corporate consolidation in healthcare (after it passed, independent doctors merged with hospitals so they could afford to keep up with ACA’s reporting requirements). I totally understand, though: Bernie and AOC would rather a target be on every healthcare CEO’s back than on their own.
However, healthcare policy wasn’t really top of mind that night.
Most people were just saying Luigi is hot.
“I’m not going to say I’m one of those fanatics standing in line at dawn to get in [the courthouse],” the elderly woman assures me. “I know there are a lot of young women who are crazy about him. [Luigi’s] very good-looking.”
(Obviously, it’s just not the same when an uggo pops someone important. Charlie Kirk’s assassin was so ugly everyone preferred to invent conspiracy theories about Israel instead of facing the real killer… and remember John Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan to get Jodie Foster to fall in love with him? It didn’t work, because he wasn’t attractive and Jodie Foster’s gay.)
Speaking of “young women who are crazy about him,” I scoped out the cabaret in search of Luigi groupies who do stand in line at dawn to get into the courthouse — and spotted a familiar brunette with goth bangs. I recognized her from a <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/18/us-news/luigi-mangione-reporters-unapologetically-celebrate-ceos-assassination-fk-brian-thompson/">piece</a> in the New York Post about a trio of Luigi fangirls who’d named themselves “Mangionistas.” They’d camped out at the courthouse before pre-trial hearings and eventually earned <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/18/us-news/luigi-mangione-bloodthirsty-superfans-nyc-issued-press-passes-draw-outrage-theyre-not-reporters-theyre-ghouls/">press passes</a>. One of them, Lena Weissbrot, called Thompson a “terrorist” whose crimes rivaled Osama bin Laden’s, and said his “children are better off without him.”
And there she was, at the show. I said hi.
“Because I’m so invested in the case,” Lena told me. “I guess I was just curious to see how much research [went into this play] — how much it matches my conception of Luigi based on examining his digital footprint and following the case. Or if it’s just going to be like, a joke thing.”
While most of the theatergoers I met waffled over the moral implications of political violence, Lena was direct. “On December 4th,” she said, “seeing the video camera [footage] of the shooting, it kind of brought me out of despair, because I’d been pretty upset about the health insurance industry… So I viewed it as a heroic act.”
I asked if Luigi pleading not guilty takes away from his “heroism.”
“It’d be way cooler if he got away with it,” she said. “It would be pretty empowering to find out that under the age of mass surveillance, you can still get away with something.”
Well, if the show is any indication, the only way Luigi gets away with it is via jailbreak.
During the show, after Luigi announced that he was being held against his will for the alleged murder of a CEO, the audience erupted in applause. Luigi then lamented ordering hash browns at McDonald’s — a reference to his <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/10/us-news/luigi-mangione-caught-scarfing-down-hash-brown-at-mcdonalds-before-arrest-for-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompsons-assassination/">capture</a> — but the joke was overshadowed by a song: “Deny, Delay, Defend” (a reference to engravings found on bullet casings at the scene).
Later, while incarcerated, Luigi read letters from victims denied care and thrust into medical bankruptcy. The letters were presumably fictional, but lacked irony or humor — aside from one package he received containing panties. Even the prison guard in the show had cancer and sang about being denied treatment! This was all before said guard handed Luigi his gun and helped him escape!
“Now get out there and do the Lord’s work,” the guard commanded Mr. Mangione.
After the show, I ended up in the YOTEL lobby talking with two poli-sci students from NYU: one of them was white and wearing a dress with butterfly print, the other Latina.
“A lot of [the fixation on Luigi] has to do with his whiteness,” the white student told me. “I feel like he’d be covered very differently if he wasn’t objectively attractive.”
“And also a person of color,” the Latina student said, “or low-income.”
The white student agreed. “He’s a hot, rich boy with great cheekbones,” she said. “And I think there’s a kind of romance to that.”
“I’m not pro political violence,” she continued — though “I think honestly for [violence] to be effective, it has to target an executive.” She then introduced me to the anarchist concept of “propaganda by the deed,” wherein a dramatic violent act communicates a political message more powerfully than a speech or Bluseky post.
Later, I caught up with Lena. She was enjoying a cocktail with a blonde from Australia who was writing a book about Luigi.
Lena’s now bicoastal for Luigi, she explained to me, splitting time between LA (where she lives) and NYC. And she liked the show. “I like that they portrayed him as a hero,” she said. “In the first song, he referred to himself as a martyr. And I think that’s how most Americans view him.”
I asked her about politicians who’ve passed healthcare policy. Should they be scared of the mob, too? Or are we only targeting CEOs?
“Whoever did this,” Lena responded — a coy reference to Luigi’s “not guilty” plea — “sacrificed their life to give us leverage. I hope this does become a reckoning that leads to us getting healthcare. The people in power need to be scared. And they’re not going to respond to anything else. They need to know that we’re angry — and that it’s not even a radical opinion. I can talk about this shit casually at work.”
Plus, he’s hot. “Having seen Luigi in person,” Lena told me, “Luigi’s kind of the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life.” The actor who played him, Mike Cefalo, was “close enough,” she explained — the hair was “spot on,” though, she admits, he could have had a “stronger jaw.”
And that’s why, be it musical theater or assassination theater, it all comes down to casting.
***
Lou Perez is a comedian and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637582455?&amp;linkId=e572c26b1870452a89ca271e10dc8faa&amp;language=en_US">That Joke Isn&#8217;t Funny Anymore</a>.

image_585ab7b3

Luigi Mangione’s Curtain Call: The Pop Culture Assassin Prince Takes The Stage

DW Opinion

A far-left activist group supporting accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione is urging supporters to pursue a controversial legal strategy ahead of his upcoming murder trial: jury nullification.
The December 4 Legal Committee, named after the day prosecutors say Mangione fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has been <a href="https://x.com/d4legalcomm?lang=en">coordinating</a> fundraisers, raising roughly $1.5 million for Mangione&#8217;s legal defense while organizing protests and promoting jury nullification in the weeks leading up to trial. 
Jury nullification occurs when jurors vote to acquit a defendant despite believing the prosecution proved the defendant violated the law, because they believe a conviction would produce an unjust result. Although juries have the power to nullify, judges do not instruct jurors on the practice, and attorneys are generally prohibited from encouraging it in court. 
The tactic has surfaced at several points throughout American history, including in some cases involving slavery and prosecutions of Vietnam War draft dodgers.
The Fifth Amendment <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-5/">prevents</a> criminals from being subjected to double jeopardy, or being convicted twice for the same crime. The Amendment enshrines jury nullification by preventing prosecutors from receiving a retrial
Jury nullification has been used in the antebellum Civil War North to free slaves that were trying to be taken back to the South, and also by juries in the 70s who decided to acquit young Americans from dodging the Vietnam draft.
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/07/31/us-news/luigi-mangione-could-walk-free-and-a-radical-organization-is-pushing-for-it/">reported</a> that two activists were arrested after distributing jury nullification pamphlets outside a Denver courthouse, although the Colorado Supreme Court later ruled in their favor.
New York criminal defense attorney Kenneth Belkin warned that efforts to promote jury nullification risk politicizing the justice system. 
“You don’t want prosecutions based on politics. You don’t want juries acting based on politics. You want them pursuing the truth,” Belkin <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/luigi-mangione-not-guilty-acquit-c9rnsq9xw">told</a> The Times.
Belkin said finding an impartial jury in New York City could prove difficult given Mangione&#8217;s support among some left-wing activists. 
“You have a juror pool in New York City that is particularly politically inflamed. It’s a very partisan city, and I think Luigi Mangione has a lot of support in New York City, despite the fact that he’s accused of an egregious murder,” Belkin said.  
“I think that’s concerning because if you have a large amount of people that are supporting a [suspected] murderer’s political stance in committing a murder, that raises a real possibility that you could get some jurors on that jury that may not convict, no matter what the evidence says.”
Sonali Chakravarti, a professor of government at Wesleyan University, said jury nullification gives “a jury to have true freedom to render the outcome that they think is the most just under the circumstances.” 
But she cautioned that “taken to an extreme, nullification would completely cause a breakdown of the legal system.”
Mangione is charged with fatally shooting Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024 in what prosecutors say was a politically motivated killing. The case has attracted an unusual following, with supporters portraying Mangione as a symbol of frustration with the U.S. healthcare system.
His trial is scheduled to begin on September 8.

US-JUSTICE-CRIME-MANGIONE

Left-Wing Activists Have A Plan To Free Luigi Mangione

grand jury

Leftists

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Step aside &#8220;Chicago,&#8221; there’s a new show in town that glamorizes celebrity criminals. Featuring alleged sex trafficker Sean Diddy Combs, convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, and alleged assassin Luigi Mangione, &#8220;Luigi: The Musical&#8221; brings all three together in a supposed satire comedy.
I walked in with an open mind, assuming the show would lampoon the trio and the fact that they were once all housed at the same Brooklyn prison, the Metropolitan Detention Center. Musical theater doesn’t necessarily shy away from tackling sensitive subjects and sacred cows. &#8220;The Producers,&#8221; a musical by Jewish filmmaker Mel Brooks, includes a love song to the Third Reich, “Springtime for Hitler.” &#8220;The Book of Mormon,&#8221; written by the creators of South Park, roasts the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Surely, &#8220;Luigi&#8221; would mock its subject as well. 
It turns out, it only pretended to do that. On Thursday night in Hell’s Kitchen, I learned that the crowd was attending not just to laugh but to show their support for a certain message.
“It tells you a lot that this place is packed,” the guy next to me said. “It was bad what he did, but the CEO wasn’t a good guy.” 
He said his office is on the Midtown block where the shooting took place. The girl behind me in line to get into the venue said the show had been such a blockbuster success in Manhattan that it added two more show times. Safe to say, there were a lot of Mangione sympathizers in the house. They were eager for validation, and the show delivered. 
The first signal of the show’s agenda came when Mangione broke out into a humorous ballad that quickly turned serious. Titled “All for a Smile,” the song details how Mangione was ultimately caught by authorities because he pulled down his mask at a youth hostel check-in to smile at a staff member, exposing his identity to the security cameras.  
“I shouldn’t have bought those hash browns,” the actor laments about his character’s subsequent visit to a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, where he sat brooding over a table with his manifesto and the gun he allegedly used to commit the crime. 
“A martyr’s life is what I chose,” he belts with an indignant passion. 
The show&#8217;s tone suggests that Mangione was not some calculating monster but a principled man and a reluctant killer. I realized halfway through the show that the intention behind including the disgraced music giant and crypto entrepreneur in the story was so they could serve as foils to Mangione’s more noble motivations. 
Desperate for fame and fortune, Bankman-Fried and Combs are peas in a pod, while Mangione is the odd one out in this band of misfits. The rapper and the nerd exchange witty banter that culminates in their (fictional) gay relationship. While Bankman-Fried defines “venture capitalism” as investing in startups in exchange for capital, Combs remarks that he basically does the same thing by investing in the potential of his strippers. As they formulate a prison escape plan, Bankman-Fried muses that they could finance their heist through a “classic pump and dump,” by which he means artificially driving up the value of an asset and then shorting it for quick cash. Combs says that he too is familiar with the pump and dump, but that it means something different at his Hamptons white parties.
All these clever double entendres are meant to show that whether white collar crime or sexual exploits, it’s all the same evil. Those two fiends were hungry for money, power, and pleasure. Mangione, on the other hand? He is simply accused of gunning down a father and a husband in cold blood for the altruistic purpose of avenging victims of the healthcare industry (who apparently don’t understand that buying insurance doesn’t mean the company covers every claim). That was the obvious conclusion of the show. 
As an Australian guy I talked to put it, speaking about Mangione and Combs, respectively, “This one’s warranted, and this one’s nasty.” 
I questioned him about Australia’s nationalized healthcare system, which he praised as quite functional. He suggested nothing violent would ever happen in Australia because of grievances with corporate greed. Maybe not, but it recently experienced <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bondi-beach-terrorist-was-previously-investigated-for-ties-to-isis">antisemitic terrorists</a> spraying bullets at Jews celebrating Hanukkah on the beach.
When I asked if there were long wait times to see a doctor in Australia, the guy replied, “Oh, yeah.”
That’s a major caveat of universal healthcare that progressives in America haven’t had to endure and therefore haven’t given much thought to. Nowhere in the show was the necessary nuance about why our healthcare system is so convoluted and seemingly capricious. Like, the fact that government intervention has <a href="https://www.heritage.org/article/the-truth-about-government-controlled-health-care">overcomplicated</a> it six ways to Sunday. The coexistence of government programs and private insurers forces healthcare providers to navigate a complex labyrinth of billing codes, rules, and claims processing, making administrative expenses account for nearly <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12920308/">25% of all healthcare spending</a>.
With tears in his eyes, Mangione reads letters from fan girls and fitness chads with serious injuries and medical conditions, treatment for which their insurance companies denied. The show ends with the prison guard taking Mangione to solitary confinement, where he confesses in soap opera fashion that he, too, requested coverage for a debilitating health problem that United Healthcare denied. Moved by Mangione’s cause, the guard gives him his gun back to bust out of the clink. Prison corruption and murder to own the health insurance complex!
The claim that the musical was a satire was a massive stretch. It’s not a satire if it picks and chooses which characters, all of whom did or allegedly did very immoral things, to criticize. It was whiplash-inducing to keep up with when the left-wing editorializing starts and stops. The most abrupt transition comes after the prison guard has at length justified Mangione’s vendetta with his sob story. With a lyric that lands as more sincere than satirical, the final song proclaims, “We’ll shoot everybody until there’s peace on earth.”
***
Caroline Downey is a columnist and video personality at National Review. She is also a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum and a 2025-2026 Novak fellow with the Fund for American Studies.

Luigi Mangione Returns To Court

The Left’s New Antihero Just Got His Own Musical

Theater

Upstream

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro said in a court hearing on Wednesday that Luigi Mangione will argue a “psychiatric defense” for his upcoming state trial over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 
The man who is painted by many on the Left as an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/luigi-mangione">antihero</a> will now seek to present evidence that he experienced “extreme emotional disturbance” at the time of Thompson’s killing, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/judge-reveals-luigi-mangione-pursue-psychiatric-defense-unitedhealthcare-ceo-assassination-case">Fox News</a> reported.
Mangione&#8217;s psychiatric defense could downgrade a murder conviction to a manslaughter conviction if the jury buys his argument. Mangione’s exact psychiatric issues are not clear, but the defense will have to inform the prosecutors of what malady the defendant suffers from and what caused his “extreme emotional disturbance&#8221; ahead of the state trial, which is set to begin on September 8.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/suspect-in-unitedhealthcare-ceo-assassination-charged-with-murder?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Suspect+In+UnitedHealthcare+CEO+Assassination+Charged+With+Murder">On December 4, 2024</a>, Mangione allegedly gunned down Thompson outside of the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. He was arrested five days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Evidence of premeditation was found in a notebook he had on him during the arrest, detailing how to carry out the murder and why. He also carried a manifesto against insurance companies, specifically mentioning “United.”  
The judge ordered the defense to give further details to the DA&#8217;s office by Thursday.
Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, pointed out on <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6398666923112">Fox News</a> that Mangione said himself in 2025 that “he doesn’t have mental illness, that he doesn’t suffer from drug abuse of any kind. … They’re gonna hang this on the fact that he had spinal fusion surgery in 2023, and he had been suffering in pain, and isolation, and anxiety.” 
Siegel doesn’t believe any of Mangione&#8217;s claims would “meet the bar of extreme emotional disturbance if it hadn’t been diagnosed previously, where he had some kind of delusional or psychotic disorder as a result.” 
Legal analyst Kerri Urbahn sees the defense linking the “emotional disturbance” to Mangione’s spinal fusion surgery back in 2023, arguing that excessive angst and anger built up over time, and then he eventually “exploded — reacted and gunned down the CEO.”
Mangione has already received a favorable ruling in his federal case, when a judge dismissed charges in the case that made him eligible for the death penalty. Mangione pleaded not guilty to all state and federal charges.

The Defense Strategy Luigi Mangione Is Betting Everything On

Ted Bundy had admirers. Jeffrey Dahmer had a girlfriend. Luigi Mangione has a mob of bloodthirsty progressive fanatics, and now, press credentials.
Meet the self-proclaimed &#8220;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/themangionistas/">Mangionistas</a>&#8220;: Abril Rios, Ashley Rojas, and Lena Weissbrot. Three young women who have apparently fallen head over heels for the man accused of executing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in cold blood on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk on December 4, 2024. A father of two was shot in the back while walking to an investor conference. For months, the trio has been posting trial updates, churning out &#8220;Free Luigi&#8221; content, and calling for jury nullification through thirst traps and anti-corporate screeds.
New York City&#8217;s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, handed them <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/18/us-news/luigi-mangione-reporters-unapologetically-celebrate-ceos-assassination-fk-brian-thompson/?utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter">lanyards</a> to do it.
Under the city&#8217;s newly relaxed &#8220;indie creator&#8221; credentialing rules, you qualify for a press pass if you&#8217;ve posted six or more pieces of content about a breaking news event. Six posts. Low bar. So Abril Rios, self-described &#8220;Hot Girl for Zohran&#8221; and proud Mangionista, walked up to the courthouse covering a murder trial for a man she openly worships, press pass dangling from her neck. Same for Ashley Rojas, who bills herself as a &#8220;writer,&#8221; and Lena Weissbrot: Self-described game developer, rapper performing under the stage name &#8220;Fellatia G,&#8221; and the owner of an online wishlist that includes a bulletproof helmet, body armor, and a 3D printer. Just normal press corps stuff.
Outside the courthouse Monday, Rojas looked into a camera and said, city-issued credential swinging from her neck: “I’m standing on business: f*ck Brian Thompson. I don’t give a flying f*ck he died. F*ck Brian Thompson. F*ck his mom.”
Weissbrot donning a neon green, pink, and purple striped costume and sporting pigtails added coldly that Thompson&#8217;s teenage sons &#8220;are better off without him&#8221; and should &#8220;enjoy the blood money.&#8221; Then she drew a slow finger across her throat and said his name.
Rios, chomping gum, wondered aloud why the Second Amendment exists if not to &#8220;shoot up schools,&#8221; before turning to the camera and informing the president of the United States: &#8220;Trump, I&#8217;m coming for you, baby.&#8221;
What lovely, classy, tolerant women New York City is churning out these days.
On Instagram, Weissbrot <a href="https://www.instagram.com/fellatiag/">posted</a> a lengthy caption beneath a photo of herself in her Luigi costume, which included the following disclaimer: &#8220;I condemn all violence by all people of all time in perpetuity forever.&#8221; Beautiful.
She then spent the rest of the caption calling the American healthcare system &#8220;a slaughter house,&#8221; declaring that whoever killed Brian Thompson is a “hero,&#8221; and arguing that people have the right to violence when they feel threatened and the threat &#8220;refuses to stop.&#8221;
So: violence condemned, permanently, universally. Unless the target is someone you&#8217;ve decided deserves it. The permission structure for murder, it turns out, has a very low bar on the <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/52960-charlie-kirk-americans-political-violence-poll">Left</a>. Especially for “hot” girls for Zohran, who are quite “hot” for “heroic violence.”
As a society, we should be pointing at and shaming these people. But instead of condemning this dangerous and frightening behavior, mentally ill women have been given a megaphone.
Besides abiding by a moral code reads something like: “Thou shall do whatever the f*ck thou wants to people who disagree with thou. Murder is cool if it’s against someone uncool. Stand on business, Queen,” they’re also just wholeheartedly wrong on the merits.
They claimed, with apparent sincerity, that Brian Thompson personally killed more people than Osama bin Laden. First: if Bin Laden were somehow in a courtroom today, something tells me these women would be posting thirst traps for him too. Second: this is simply deranged. Total U.S. deaths run roughly 3.1 million annually. The leading killers are heart disease, cancer, and accidents, not claim denials. American private insurance, for all its flaws, has driven the medical innovation that gives the U.S. some of the highest cancer survival rates in the world. Brian Thompson started with next to nothing, spent over two decades rising through UnitedHealth Group, and built a life. He did not deserve to be shot from behind. His sons did not deserve to lose their father. His wife did not deserve to be widowed.
But facts are irrelevant here, because the Mangionistas don&#8217;t want solutions. They want blood, and they want it to be aesthetically pleasing on their feeds.
There&#8217;s a clinical name for this: Hybristophilia, a romantic or sexual attraction to violent criminals, is a well-documented, overwhelmingly female phenomenon. Social media, true-crime TikTok, and the romanticization of the &#8220;dangerous misunderstood man&#8221; have turbocharged it. Add weaponized female empathy, an anti-corporate ideology that teaches generations that billionaires are the real terrorists, and platforms that reward outrage over accuracy, and you get a press-badged ghoul telling a dead man&#8217;s kids to enjoy the blood money.
This is not a few bad apples, and the data bears that out. Affective polarization is at a record high. At least 41% of Americans aged 18–29 <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5044269-poll-finds-41-percent-find-killing-unacceptable/">viewed</a> Thompson&#8217;s death as at least &#8220;somewhat acceptable.&#8221; Political violence from the Left is rising. When institutions (including the mayor&#8217;s office) legitimize and platform those who glorify it, the problem doesn&#8217;t stay online.
The Mangionistas are not a fringe aberration. They are the logical, grotesque endpoint of a progressive ideology that spent decades replacing objective and religious morality with emotivism, facts with feelings, and the rule of law with tribal vengeance. When you teach people that success is theft, that corporations are terrorists, and that murdering someone &#8220;uncool&#8221; is activism, you don&#8217;t get revolutionaries. You get this.
Even Mangione&#8217;s own attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, condemned the trio. &#8220;These individuals do not represent the views of Luigi,&#8221; she said, calling their statements &#8220;vile and irresponsible.&#8221; When your behavior is too unhinged for the accused murderer&#8217;s defense team, you have made a serious wrong turn.
Take the press passes back, Mayor Mamdani. Some things shouldn&#8217;t come with a lanyard.

Luigi Mangione And His Lawyers Attends Hearing In Manhattan Court

Murderer Fan Club Ghouls Are The New Courtroom Journalists

A society that greenlights political violence is likely to see more of it.
A society that greenlights political violence by essentially arguing that the systems you don&#8217;t like are murderous systems and thus people who participate in those systems must be murdered is greenlighting political violence.
And then, when you have liberal judicial systems that are set up to let criminals off the hook, it gets even worse.
Yesterday, a judge ruled that while the murder weapon used in the murder of Brian Thompson was admissible at trial, a bunch of other evidence should be suppressed.
A New York judge ruled that some key evidence that was seized from Luigi Mangione’s backpack during his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald&#8217;s will be inadmissible at trial.
The decision is a little bit complex. It is also not particularly well-founded. The evidence that&#8217;s been ruled admissible includes the gun, a 3D printed silencer, and a red notebook that allegedly contains a bunch of damning writing.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2429?elementPosition=5&amp;row=5&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
The evidence to be suppressed, however, includes a phone, Mangione’s passport, a gun magazine, a wallet, and a computer chip.
The judge in this particular case said he agreed with the defense argument that the search of Mangione’s backpack at McDonald&#8217;s — without reading him his rights — was unconstitutional because it had been moved away from arm&#8217;s reach.
Why? New York law is super-duper-duper weird.
First of all, it&#8217;s unclear why New York law should apply, even though the entire search took place in Pennsylvania.
The judge wrote:
<blockquote>Defendant is being tried in New York for a crime that occurred in New York. Under these circumstances, it is clear that New York is the forum state and that New York has a paramount interest in the application of the law. Suppression issues, procedural issues, and evidentiary issues are governed by the law of the forum state.</blockquote>
That&#8217;s super-duper weird. If he&#8217;d been caught in California, why exactly would the cops in California have to know New York law to properly do their job?
New York&#8217;s laws on this sort of stuff are insane. Even the federal law regarding search and seizure is totally crazy.
A case called Mapp v. Ohio — one of those critical criminal law cases you learn in first-year law school — established the so-called “exclusionary rule.” For the vast majority of American history, if there was an illegal search and seizure where the cops broke into your house and they found evidence of a crime, that evidence was still admissible in court. The cop might be punished; there might be a lawsuit against the cop.
But Mapp v. Ohio established the so-called exclusionary rule, which said that if your Fourth Amendment rights are violated, we can&#8217;t use the evidence found in court.
The reason this is particularly stupid is that it penalizes the general public for the failures of the cops. The cops fail to fully follow the Fourth Amendment, and now criminals have to be let out on the street unless they “read you your rights.”
I know we all take this for granted now because we&#8217;ve watched a bunch of Law &amp; Order episodes, but it really is quite stupid. The idea that you have to be read your Miranda rights again — another ridiculous case, where somebody has to inform you of your right not to self-incriminate, or we&#8217;ll take the evidence and throw it out of court — is really, really dumb. It means that many more criminals get off and end up on the street.
In the Mangione case, New York law goes even further. New York law has something called the “exigency exception.” That means you are allowed to search someone without a warrant or any warning if there&#8217;s a threat of “exigent” danger.
There&#8217;s a guy who&#8217;s running away from you, and he&#8217;s firing a gun at you. You tackle him and you search his pockets and you come up with drugs. Those would be the “exigent” circumstances.
In Mangione’s case, the judge ruled that the property had to be within the suspect&#8217;s immediate control or grabbable area, but the backpack was moved away from him to a table about nine feet away, at which point it was no longer in his control. And so they could not search it without having the evidence excluded.
But later, after they had read him his rights, the evidence found was admissible.
Let&#8217;s say, for example, that you&#8217;re arrested before somebody reads you your Miranda rights. You immediately blurt out that you committed the crime. That may be inadmissible.
But after they read your rights, if you repeat what you had blurted out, it&#8217;s now admissible.
The bottom line is that much of our criminal justice system has been twisted in favor of the perpetrator and against the victims, and that is part and parcel of the broader effort over the course of the last 70 or 80 years in American law to grant outsized rights to perpetrators as opposed to defending the general public from those perpetrators.
And even that is not the really big issue here. The really big issue with Luigi Mangione, of course, is that he has a lot of supporters.
There&#8217;s been an entire permission structure that&#8217;s been set up largely by the Left that says if you don&#8217;t like the systems of American life, systems they view as intractable and unchangeable, people who participate in the systems are guilty.
I&#8217;m old enough to remember the Occupy Wall Street protests. Occupy Wall Street was a movement in 2011 that emerged in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and a group of people on the Left — instead of protesting the government&#8217;s involvement with Wall Street — decided to protest Wall Street itself.
The idea was that Wall Street was inherently evil. That was a completely misdirected use of mental and emotional resources because, after all, the members of Wall Street are not answerable to the general public. They&#8217;re operating in the private sphere.
If you wish to protest public policy, we have a whole city called Washington, D.C., where federal public policy gets made.
But that&#8217;s not what the Left was protesting. They weren’t protesting government involvement in industry — government&#8217;s heavy hand. They were protesting that government was not doing enough to be involved. They were protesting the existence of the private sector itself.
Thus, when they don&#8217;t like the systems, they blame members of the private sector for participating in those systems.
You can see this throughout left-wing politics. You see it in Zohran Mamdani saying ridiculous and insane things about the nature of how the world should work.
Yesterday, Mamdani was at an event, and he was talking about Ronald Reagan saying the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I&#8217;m from the government and I&#8217;m here to help.” Mamdani said, no, no, no, no. The most terrifying words in the English language are, “I worked all day and can&#8217;t feed my family.” He added, “We are going to use the power of government to lower prices and make it easier for New Yorkers to put food on the table.”
The entire left-wing thought structure is that failures are attributable to the private sector.
Government is always and forever the fix.
Thus, if you don&#8217;t like the health care system, it is not that the health care system in the United States can be a mess because it is heavily regulated and heavily subsidized, the real problem is that the people involved in the private sector are bad. The people involved in the public sector are good.
This creates a phenomenon that they like to call social murder, which justifies violence. So if, for example, you&#8217;re Brian Thompson — a father, a person who raised himself up from not particularly wonderful economic circumstances in his youth to become the head of United Health, one of the biggest insurers in America — and you operate within the law — the law itself is flawed, but you operate within it — you are responsible for death and deserve to die.
So yesterday, outside of the trial of Mangione, some self-proclaimed “Mangionistas” showed off press passes that they had received, according to the New York Post, from Mamdani’s administration.
One said of Thompson, “His children are better off without him. They need to learn to not be like their dad. And enjoy the blood money, kids. &#8230; He’s responsible for more deaths than Osama bin Laden. … It’s not like we don’t understand heroic violence, or, like, when violence is good.”
This is psychotic stuff.
The idea that Thompson, by being the CEO of a major insurance company, was somehow like Osama bin Laden, who literally ordered the flying of planes into buildings in New York, is psychotic.
But this is an increasingly popular view with people on the Left who believe that the private sector is responsible for all of the ills of society and that all the systems that they don&#8217;t like are run by people who are attempting to do things like murder.
Hassan Piker, considered a mainstream political commentator by the Left, was recently talking about “social murder” with regard to Mangione.
He stated:
<blockquote>Engels wrote about the concept of social murder, and Brian Thompson as the United Health Care CEO, was engaging in a tremendous amount of social murder. The systematized forms of violence, the structural violence of poverty, the for-profit pay-walled system of health care in this country. And the consequences of that are tremendous amounts of pain, tremendous amounts of violence, tremendous amounts of deaths.
And that was a fascinating story for me, because Americans are very draconian about crime and punishment. They&#8217;re very black and white on this issue. And yet, because of the pervasive pain that the private health care system had created for the average American, I saw so many people immediately understand why this death had taken place.</blockquote>
If you want more political violence in the United States, the Left will bring it to you.

donkey_blood

The Left’s Murder Fantasy

Ben Shapiro

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s credentialing process for the press has devolved into a license for lunacy.
On Monday, a trio of unhinged, bloodthirsty sycophants of accused assassin Luigi Mangione turned a Manhattan courthouse&#8217;s steps into a stage for vile, radical-Left theater. Self-proclaimed “Mangionistas” Abril Rios, Ashley Rojas, and Lena Weissbrot — a woman who performs under a vulgar stage name — proudly flaunted official city press passes while launching into stomach-turning diatribes celebrating political violence.
Armed with taxpayer-sanctioned credentials, the women launched into sickening, unvarnished attacks against the victim.
“F*ck Brian Thompson,” Rojas spat, wearing a city press pass. “That’s all I want to say. F*ck Brian Thompson. F*ck his mom,” she added, as The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/18/us-news/luigi-mangione-reporters-unapologetically-celebrate-ceos-assassination-fk-brian-thompson/">reported</a>.
Weissbrot, clad in a garish striped outfit, targeted Thompson&#8217;s grieving family, chillingly declaring: “His children are better off without him. They need to learn to not be like their dad. And enjoy the blood money, kids.”
Weissbrot went on to minimize the cold-blooded assassination by comparing the executive to a terrorist mastermind: “He’s responsible for more deaths than Osama bin Laden. … It’s not like we don’t understand heroic violence, or, like, when violence is good.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
What you&#39;re about to watch is two members of the &quot;press&quot; credentialed by Mayor Mamdani, openly endorsing the heinous and evil assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Ashley Rojas and Lena Weissbrot are their names, and they deserve to be famous:
Rojas: &quot;I&#39;m saying… <a href="https://t.co/ub69hrtbqg">pic.twitter.com/ub69hrtbqg</a>
&mdash; Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewKolvet/status/2056459490950828475?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Outside the courthouse, Rios aimed her vitriol at the president of the United States, saying, “I mean, why do we protect the Second Amendment so much — is it to allow people to shoot up schools, or is it to protect our democracy? Why can the president say we will hunt you and kill you in an official White House memo? Why is that allowed? But when we say the president should be held accountable and I want to see him hanging in the town square by his balls, that’s wrong? I’m sorry. Two can play at that game. Trump, I’m coming for you, baby.”
Weissbrot similarly called for the execution of &#8220;traitors,&#8221; adding, “I can’t exactly say I’m anti-death penalty, because if this were my regime,” then made a gesture indicating cutting her throat before saying “Brian Thompson.”
“Stop being a f*cking soy cuck and grow some f*cking balls,” she continued. “I have been waiting for someone like this mysterious hero to appear.”
Lost in this grotesque carnival is the nightmarish reality of the tragedy. On December 4, 2024, Thompson, a father of two, was subjected to a cold-blooded, meticulously planned execution. <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/luigi-mangione-charged-stalking-and-murder-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-and-use">According</a> to the DOJ, Mangione used fake identification, conducted reconnaissance, and ambushed Thompson from behind on a Midtown street, firing several rounds from a suppressed 9mm pistol. Mangione’s notebook callously detailed taking out &#8220;the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention,&#8221; according to authorities.
City Hall spokeswoman Dora Pekec told The New York Post that the administration was now reconsidering how it handles doling out press passes.

US-NEWS-NYC-CEO-MURDER-MANGIONE-SUPPORTERS-2-NY

Mamdani’s City Hall Gave Press Passes To Bloodthirsty Ghouls Celebrating Brian Thompson’s Murder

A New York judge on Monday tossed out key evidence found in the backpack of Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the heart of Manhattan.
Judge Gregory Carro ruled that evidence obtained from Mangione’s backpack when he was arrested at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s must be suppressed, including a magazine, cellphone, passport, computer chip, and wallet. 
A gun and notebook that prosecutors say connect Mangione to Thompson’s murder will still be allowed as evidence at the trial, which is set to begin on <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/luigi-mangione-due-court-ruling-backpack-evidence-ceo-killing-case-2026-05-18/">September 8 and last about six weeks</a>. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
NEW VIDEO: Cameras inside the courtroom capture the moment New York State Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro announces that some key pieces of evidence seized from Luigi Mangione’s backpack during his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald&#8217;s are inadmissible at trial, while some of it… <a href="https://t.co/dTbrR8dcYw">pic.twitter.com/dTbrR8dcYw</a>
— Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/2056385258858197203?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2026</a></blockquote>
The ruling is a partial win for Mangione’s defense team, who argued that the search of the backpack without a warrant violated his constitutional rights.
&#8220;At the hearing, Altoona law enforcement officers repeatedly attempted to justify their warrantless search of Mr. Mangione&#8217;s backpack &#8230; instead, all these officers demonstrated was an utter disregard for a defendant&#8217;s constitutional rights and a shocking ignorance of basic search and seizure caselaw,&#8221; Mangione&#8217;s attorneys wrote in a state court filing, <a href="https://abcnews.com/US/judge-decide-throw-key-evidence-luigi-mangione/story?id=133018432">according to ABC News</a>. 
The prosecution argued the officers acted &#8220;in deliberate and painstaking fashion&#8221; while searching the backpack. 
&#8220;At every step, the Altoona officers responded to this unexpected and alarming situation reasonably,&#8221; Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann wrote in a court filing. 
Thompson was gunned down from behind in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024, as he was walking to a hotel during his company’s annual investor conference. 
Shell casings retrieved from the scene had the words “deny,” &#8220;defend,&#8221; and “depose” written on them, according to the New York Police Department. The words found on the shell casings have been connected to a 2010 book that was critical of the health insurance industry. Mangione’s fingerprints allegedly matched those found on a water bottle and a protein bar wrapper recovered near the murder scene, and the gun recovered from his backpack was matched to shell casings found at the scene.
The killing sparked a massive, nationwide five-day manhunt, which ended with Mangione&#8217;s arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which is more than 200 miles from Manhattan. At the fast-food chain, police found a loaded gun magazine in his backpack. A subsequent inventory search of the bag at the Altoona police station turned up a firearm, suppressor, and what appeared to be a manifesto, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-drops-fight-for-death-penalty-in-luigi-mangione-assassination-case">The Daily Wire previously reported</a>. 
Mangione pleaded not guilty to the federal and state murder charges. In January, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed two of the four charges, including use of a firearm to commit murder, which made him eligible for the death penalty.
Garnett said she dismissed the charges “solely to preclude the death penalty as an available punishment when the jury determines if the Defendant caused Brian Thompson’s death,” The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-judge-says-prosecutors-cant-pursue-death-penalty-against-luigi-mangione" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at the time.
Behind bars, Mangione has amassed a following of mostly Left-wing advocates angry with the American healthcare system. A legal fund supporting his <a href="https://abcnews.com/US/judge-decide-throw-key-evidence-luigi-mangione/story?id=133018432">defense has surpassed $1.5 million</a>.
Mangione, if convicted of all charges, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Supporters line up ahead of Luigi Mangione ruling <a href="https://t.co/uGw13E4Y1d">https://t.co/uGw13E4Y1d</a> <a href="https://t.co/SaYxZuazon">pic.twitter.com/SaYxZuazon</a>
— New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/2056381879767417182?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2026</a></blockquote>

Luigi Mangione Scores Another Win As Judge Tosses Out Key Evidence

Judge

Menu