Luigi Mangione defense says cops peddled bogus mom quote as judge weighs if evidence will make it to trial

Defense attorneys for accused slayer Luigi Mangione said Thursday that New York constabulary and prosecutors relied connected a "false and highly prejudicial" connection they attributed to Mangione’s mother, adjacent though investigators person not produced immoderate grounds of her making it.

The disputed remark, repeated by constabulary officials successful a quality league past year, claimed that Mangione’s mother, Kathleen Mangione, told detectives she "could spot him doing thing similar this." The defence said nary specified connection appears successful immoderate find and that she said the opposite.

"That’s an perfectly mendacious statement. That was ne'er said," defence lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo told reporters extracurricular Manhattan Supreme Court connected Thursday aft a weeks-long suppression proceeding wrapped up.

"There is nary specified statement. It was ne'er made. In fact, what Mrs. Mangione said was that she could ne'er spot her lad being a hazard to himself oregon others."

Luigi Mangione appears successful Manhattan Supreme Court for a suppression hearing, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.  (Curtis Means for Daily Mail via Pool)

Luigi Mangione attends an evidentiary proceeding successful the execution lawsuit of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, astatine the Manhattan Supreme Court successful New York, Dec. 18, 2025. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters via Pool)

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Friedman Agnifilo said the defence has combed done each find turned implicit by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and NYPD, and adjacent subpoenaed records from the San Francisco Police Department. None incorporate immoderate grounds of the remark constabulary touted aboriginal successful the investigation.

Despite that, Friedman Agnifilo said, neither the NYPD nor the Manhattan DA’s bureau corrected the claim, even though it has circulated for much than a year.

"That’s a prejudicial connection that has been repeated many, galore times," she said, accusing investigators of shaping nationalist cognition with accusation that was incorrect.

Luigi Mangione appears successful Manhattan Supreme Court for a suppression proceeding connected Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.  (Curtis Means for Daily Mail via Pool)

Mangione is accused of shooting and sidesplitting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson successful New York City connected Dec. 4, 2024. 

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny antecedently said that Kathleen Mangione reported her lad missing to San Francisco constabulary connected Nov. 18, 2024. The detective moving that lawsuit called his NYPD counterparts and said the idiosyncratic helium was looking for "bears a resemblance" to the representation of the suspected slayer seen checking into a Manhattan hostel earlier Thompson's murder.

Investigators past reached retired to Mangione's parent connected Dec. 7, 2024.

"They had a speech wherever she didn't bespeak that it was her lad successful the photograph, but she said it mightiness beryllium thing that she could spot him doing," Kenny told reporters. "So that accusation was going to beryllium passed on to the detectives the adjacent morning, but fortunately we apprehended him earlier we could enactment connected that."

Kenny's remarks were wide reported by large quality outlets, including Fox News Digital, and they were cited successful a publication published this period astir the case. Fox News Digital has reached retired to the NYPD for comment.

Luigi Mangione appears successful Manhattan Supreme Court for an grounds suppression proceeding connected Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.  (Curtis Means for Daily Mail via Pool)

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The defense’s assertion came arsenic Mangione’s suppression hearing, which examined whether a handgun, silencer, mag and a reddish notebook should beryllium allowed successful his transgression trial, ended aft 3 weeks of testimony.

Judge Gregory Carro said he’ll instrumentality respective months to reappraisal written ineligible filings and expects to regularisation connected May 18 whether the grounds volition beryllium admissible successful the upcoming authorities execution trial.

Luigi Mangione appears successful Manhattan Supreme Court for a suppression proceeding arsenic some sides prepared to wrapper up arguments connected Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.  (Curtis Means for Daily Mail via Pool)

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Mangione is besides facing abstracted national charges successful the Southern District of New York, wherever prosecutors person indicated they volition question the decease penalty. A national proceeding is scheduled for aboriginal January.

Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.