2.21.25 Statement by Karen Friedman Agnifilo Outside 100 Centre Street

Luigi thanks everybody for being here today. My name is Karen Friedman Agnifilo and I’m here with Jacob Kaplan and the rest of Luigi Mangione’s legal team. My intention is not to give a press conference, not to give remarks and not to speak outside of court because I think the most important thing is to speak in court on the record. But since video cameras – the application for video of today’s proceeding was denied, I thought I would give the remarks that I gave in court out here so that the people who are interested in hearing what’s happening to Luigi Mangione can hear what’s happening to Luigi Mangione.

So I’m going to do my best to stick to the remarks that were given in court. First, I want to start by talking about the fact that Luigi Mangione remains in federal custody where he is being prosecuted in three jurisdictions: by the federal government, by New York State, and by Altoona, Pennsylvania, but he is being held in federal custody and the Department of Justice has refused to allow him to be in State custody, despite the fact that they’ve all agreed that the State court is going to go first. Now this is problematic for several reasons: number one, the federal government is still considering whether to execute Luigi and considering whether to seek the death penalty, so we are fighting that simultaneously while going first here in state court, and it impacts our ability to meet with him before court, after court. He is constantly surrounded by law enforcement, he is in shackles, he was wearing a vest today, some – it looked like, I don’t even know what it looked like, but it was a very serious vest with his legs shackled and his arms shackled, and so he is being treated differently because he is being held in federal custody than any other person who would be facing serious Murder 1 charges in New York State court, and I made a record in court today that I don’t understand what this show of danger is for.

When I go visit Luigi at MDC in Brooklyn, I sit with him, he is unshackled, he walks around freely in the visiting area, we sit in a room together without law enforcement hovering over us. But for whatever reason, here, despite all of the law enforcement, they need him to be wearing this vest, they need him to be shackled, they stand right over us and we get no time with him. So, he is being treated differently because of this unusual and frankly – the fact that he is being prosecuted by three jurisdictions for one event. It all is about one thing. One single event. So we object to that.

We also made a record today that there – although the Manhattan DA’s office has been providing discovery, we are past the discovery deadline, but they have made an effort to provide discovery, and we appreciate it. But what we haven’t received is the police paperwork from New York City. We haven’t received any of the – they call them DD5s, those are the follow-up police reports thattectives write. I’m sure there will be hundreds of them and we have not received those yet, very important.

We’ve also just today received the discovery regarding the arrest in the Altoona case and we’ve received a little of that previously, and we are concerned that Luigi’s constitutional rights were violated in Pennsylvania and there are serious search and seizure issues that will be litigated in that case in Pennsylvania and in this case here, and in the federal case, because it is alleged that Luigi had a gun on him and had other property on him that they are going to use against him in all of the cases. If there is a search and seizure issue, and again, we have to review all of the paperwork and camera footage when we receive it before we say definitively whether we think there is one, but so far what we are seeing is we think there is a serious search and seizure issue, and so we want the opportunity to litigate it, including in Pennsylvania where he was supposed to have a court date on February 24th, but the Department of Justice is refusing to transport him and allow him to face the charges in Pennsylvania, so he cannot litigate those issues in Pennsylvania.

Which brings me to the most important point that we made today, which is Luigi’s right to a fair trial is being infringed upon because he is being publicly treated as guilty and as having the presumption of guilt, as opposed to the presumption of innocence, which is what he is entitled to. And although of course I understand the NYPD’s need for a press conference before an arrest, or after an arrest, which they did here. I didn’t like it, but they did it, and I understood it. What I did not understand was how shocking it was that this week, on HBO in a documentary, I see the Chief of Detectives and the New York City mayor, full hair and makeup done, sitting down, and giving an interview for television, and talking about the evidence in Luigi’s case, talking about police paperwork that we don’t have, talking about forensics that we have not yet received. I guess we have now, today, but I didn’t when I was sitting there, learning about the case, hearing an actor play Luigi, reading from a journal that they say is Luigi’s and we have yet to receive it from the prosecution. And so it’s outrageous that they have time to go and prejudice Mr. Mangione’s ability to receive a fair trial and go out and make these statements but not give this to us. And so we are concerned, because if the Chief of Detectives is telling everybody about all this evidence, and what if it ultimately gets suppressed because it was an illegal search and seizure in Altoona, Pennsylvania, how is he going to get a fair trial?

So those are a little bit more than I was allowed to say in court, but that’s the gist of it. That’s what my prepared remarks were, and hopefully we’ll allow cameras in the court going forward. If not, I will continue to provide information. We put up a website that just has basic information. It’s luigimangioneinfo.com and we will post a transcript of today’s proceeding on that website. And that’s where we are going to be providing hopefully accurate information about this case. I apologize I’m not going to take any questions and I’m not going to make any other out of court statements because this is truly intended just to be a recitation of what happened in court. But one last thing, Luigi really wanted to thank the supporters for being here and we all appreciate it very much. Thank you so much.

From 2.21.25 NYS Supreme Court transcript

Please note that to avoid inadvertently running afoul of any court rules regarding the sharing of transcripts, we will only be sharing Ms. Friedman Agnifilo’s statements made in court and her interactions with the judge, rather than a complete transcript. “Proceeding continues” means the proceeding continued, but is not reproduced in its entirety here.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: Good afternoon, your Honor. My name is Karen Friedman Agnifilo for Luigi Mangione. I'm joined by Jacob Kaplan. I would ask that your Honor please allow my client to be unshackled for this court appearance, please.

THE COURT: Go ahead you can uncuff him.

(A pause in the proceeding.)

THE COURT: All right. Unless you need him to sign something, they'll allow him to do it after; otherwise, for security reasons, they want to keep him cuffed.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: I'd like to make a record regarding that.

THE COURT: Sure.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: You'd let me know is this an appropriate time to do that?

THE COURT: Sure, but there's no jury here, so.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: I understand, your Honor. But this is a highly publicized and covered and photographed court proceeding with strong public interest, and when my client comes to court, because he's in federal custody, they bring him, they walk him in leg shackles, arm shackles. They have him sitting here, and there is no presumption of innocence.

I'd also like to let you know that I go visit him regularly at MDC where we sit in a room, he's completely unshackled. He is a model prisoner at MDC. There has not been an issue. He has not given the police one single problem. There is no reason for him to be this way in court with all these officers here standing here.

THE COURT: I understand that, but for security reasons and for the security people here, they would prefer him to remain cuffed. Okay. Good afternoon everyone. So, update on discovery.

[proceeding continues]

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: We object to a motion schedule at this time, your Honor.

THE COURT: It appears you have enough. Listen, if you don't get the affidavits for the warrants, and I don't know exactly what they're going to be redacting from the grand jury minutes, but if we're just talking about identities, that would be enough for you to do your motions.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: Well, we're talking about there are three separate prosecutions that are happening about one event, and there's a Pennsylvania matter, there's a federal matter, there's a New York matter, all three of which will involve discovery.

We just today have been handed sounds like a lot more discovery, but frankly, we haven't gotten the bulk of the discovery. We haven't gotten a single DD5. We haven't gotten any police paperwork.

I understand and appreciate Mr. Kaplan's remarks that we are going to be getting that in two weeks, but we have yet to receive any of that. We have yet to receive copies of --

THE COURT: You got some of that today. You got that today.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: No, we do not have that today, your Honor.That's what he said. He anticipates that they will provide in two weeks. They're in the process of doing that.

[proceeding continues]

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: Your Honor, we also object to setting a motion schedule while we are in the process of speaking to the federal authorities about they're still deciding whether or not to seek the death penalty against Mr. Mangione. Obviously, that's an extremely serious matter that we're in the process of providing mitigation for the Feds for that purpose, and that is where our focus is.

That is one of the reasons why this discovery is so critical and why we need all of it before we can even begin to anticipate exactly what we are going to be putting in our motions.

As I alluded to in our court appearance that we had previous to this appearance, your Honor, one of the issues here is that the two theories of prosecution are opposite and inconsistent with one another, and by defending ourselves in state court, we are potentially providing fodder for the federal court appearance case and vice versa. And so it really is critical in this case that we receive literally everything, especially all of the information and the police work that was done here.

And one more thing I just want to say about Altoona, Pennsylvania, your Honor, if I may. From the limited information that we have, I have some police paperwork from Altoona already that I received from Mr. Mangione's Pennsylvania counsel as well as there was one body-worn camera despite there being about a dozen police officers in the McDonald's when Luigi was arrested. We have one body-worn camera that was provided by the Manhattan DA's office that shows an angle.

I think there's a very, very serious search issue in this matter, and there might be evidence that is suppressed in this case, which brings me to another related issue that I'd like to discuss, your Honor, if I may.

And I really appreciate you allowing me to make a record, but because there is a serious search and seizure issue here, and because we think that our client's constitutional rights were violated in Pennsylvania, we want to be able to have the opportunity to litigate that. However, we have been afforded -- his right to a fair trial is continuously being impacted.

And I want to just bring to your Honor's attention my shock, frankly, that the chief of detectives of the NYPD along with the New York City mayor had time to sit down with HBO and put hair and makeup on and provide information about the arrest, the prosecution, their theory about the case, and evidence about Mr. Mangione that we have not even received.

This journal that they're calling his manifesto, we have never have been provided copies. They had actors playing Luigi on television -- it didn't sound anything like him, by the way.

THE COURT: All right.I'm going to cut you off, because that has nothing to do with you moving to have the grand jury minutes inspected for sufficiency, that's definitely going to be an issue in this case, or moving to controvert any of the warrants. You could always supplement your motions,

but it's got to start.

So you should have your motions in by April 9th. People to respond by May 14th. June 26th. We'll see if I can have a decision by then, but I hope to. And again, the sooner we order the hearings, the sooner you'll have your suppression hearing.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: Yes, your Honor.

THE COURT: We'll see you on June 26th.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: Your Honor, just one logistical request. Because of the different custody and court matters, we are unable to meet with Luigi before or after alone, and we would just request if we could just have a minute or two of privacy with him, or at least to have a little space so we can talk to him.

THE COURT: One second.

(A pause in the proceeding.)

THE COURT: You'd have to do it now. Right here.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: Your Honor, if I may just make one more record. Because of this unusual circumstance of him being in federal custody but proceeding first on the state case, we do just want to make a record that I think Mr. Mangione is being treated differently than other defendants who would be prosecuted in this court who would be able to have access to his attorneys, who could sit here unshackled, who your Honor could make decisions --

THE COURT: You know, I don't have a problem remanding him right here so he's here in the city. I thought you guys, the People were working on trying to get him so we have custody in that the federal jurisdiction said we were going first, meaning New York.

MR. Z. KAPLAN: Your Honor, the agreement remains that we are to try this case first; however, there's no agreement up to this point to transfer custody from federal custody to state custody.

THE COURT: I mean, is there even an indictment?

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: No, your Honor.

THE COURT: In federal court? So they're holding him on a complaint.

MR. Z. KAPLAN: On the consent of the defense.

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: When they're hanging the death penalty over your head, you have no choice but to consent.

THE COURT: I get it. Okay. Can you come up for a second.

(Whereupon, an off-the-record discussion was held at the bench.)

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: (Conferring with client.)

THE COURT: All right.

(Whereupon, the proceeding was adjourned to June 26, 2025.)

2.4.25 Statement from a spokesperson for Agnifilo Intrater LLP

“The Agnifilo Intrater team is pleased to have Avi Moskowitz lend his considerable expertise in death penalty cases to Mr. Mangione’s federal case as ‘learned counsel.’ The charges could not be more serious and our client needs every resource at his disposal to fight these unprecedented charges in three jurisdictions.”

2.4.25 Statement from Karen Friedman Agnifilo

"Luigi is aware of the fund and very much appreciates the outpouring of support. My client plans on utilizing it to fight all three of the unprecedented cases against him."

From 12.23.24 NYS Supreme Court transcript

MS. AGNIFILO: First we request immediate expedited discovery in this case. The People have had this case for about almost three weeks and that's more than enough time to gather as much information as they can give to us, especially now that we have two proceedings that we have to answer to, one of them being death-eligible. So we are requesting that we get immediate discovery of all the New York City Police Department and FBI and Federal and State documents.

From 12.19.24 SDNY transcript

MS. FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO: Yes, your Honor. I would like to follow up on what the government just said and seek clarity on exactly what it is that is happening, because this is a highly unusual situation we find ourselves in.

12.18.24 Statement from Karen Friedman Agnifilo

“The federal government's reported decision to pile on top of an already overcharged first-degree murder and state terror case is highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns. We are ready to fight these charges in whatever court they are brought."