Manhattan prosecutors asked a judge Monday to correct what they called false claims by Luigi Mangione’s defense team about media access to his upcoming murder trial and remind the attorneys of their ethical obligations.
The filing came days after Mangione’s lawyers argued the court’s plan for public and media access violates his constitutional right to a public trial and alleged the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was involved in deciding which reporters would be allowed to cover the proceedings.
Prosecutors denied the allegation, saying the office “had no role” in developing the New York State Office of Court Administration’s media access plan or selecting journalists to cover the trial.
“The defense’s baseless accusation thus appears to be nothing more than an attempt to spread misinformation about this case and delegitimize the proceedings,” Senior Trial Counsel Joel J. Seidemann wrote in a letter to Judge Gregory Carro.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office asked Carro to remind Mangione’s attorneys of their ethical obligations not to knowingly make false statements to a court or third parties, citing New York’s Rules of Professional Conduct.
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In Friday’s filing, defense attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan argued the court’s media access restrictions amount to a partial closure of the proceedings in violation of the First, Sixth and 14th Amendments.
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The attorneys objected to the lack of an overflow courtroom, limits on jury selection coverage and what they described as a process allowing only a select group of reporters to attend the trial.
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They also claimed they were told only 68 journalists would receive general access to the proceedings and that the selection process had effectively been outsourced to a private attorney representing several legacy media organizations.
Mangione’s attorneys asked the court to hold a public hearing, identify the journalists selected to cover jury selection and the broader trial, explain how those reporters were chosen and detail efforts to secure an overflow courtroom.
They also asked the court to either broadcast the proceedings live or explain why that would not be permitted.
Prosecutors responded Monday that the defense had wrongly implicated the district attorney’s office in decisions made by the Office of Court Administration.
“The District Attorney’s Office had no role in developing the Office of Court Adm
