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Luigi Mangione Pleads Guilty to Federal Stalking Charges; Prosecutors: "There Can Be No Celebrity in Assassination"; Mangione To Court: "I Knew What I Was Doing Was Illegal"; Mangione Sentencing Scheduled for December 18. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 14, 2026 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, SMERCONISH: I just want to put an end to the glamorization of someone who murdered an individual, a then 50- year-old husband and father of two, and he became then the, you know, the poster example of, of sainthood, at least in the vicinity of where the murder took place because I saw it.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Yeah. That's just absolutely gross and no one should be celebrating that. It's despicable. Thank you so much, Michael Smerconish and Areva Martin. We appreciate it. Thank you everyone for joining us this morning. You can keep up with us on social media. We'll see you back here Monday eastern -- at 10 am Eastern. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts now. Have a great weekend.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: And the breaking news is coming out of New York. Luigi Mangione just pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges in connection to the 2024 murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Now, to file that plea, Mangione had to describe in his own words what happened from his anger at the UnitedHealthcare system and the country -- excuse me, the company until the day outside that New York City hotel where he says, quote, I shot Mr. Thompson and he died. I knew what I was doing was illegal.

I want to get straight to New York. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is there along with Kara Scannell. Kara, you were inside that hearing. It's unfortunate that we don't have cameras inside there, or even audio, but we do have you to describe how it went down. I mean, absolutely dramatic, and to hear Mangione not just accept and admit what he did but give us more details about how he did it was remarkable.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dana, it was remarkable. It's the first time we've heard Mangione speak in in any way since this shooting took place. And he sat at the defense table. He had a piece of paper in front of him --

BASH: You know, what Kara, Kara, I'm going to interrupt through it because his defense attorneys are now at the microphones. Let's listen.

KAREN FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good afternoon, everyone. My name Karen Friedman Agnifilo, and I represent Luigi Mangione. Today is a solemn and significant day. With today's guilty plea, Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson, arising from the events of December 4, 2024, outside of the UnitedHealthcare Investor Conference here in Midtown Manhattan. It was a single tragic event. Yet, he's being prosecuted twice for the same conduct.

As Luigi explained in court today, he endured years of severe debilitating pain, following a broken back, while struggling to navigate our healthcare and health insurance systems, like the thousands of people who have reached out since this tragedy to share their own experiences, he believed that the system had failed him and destroyed his life.

Despite this being a single isolated event, Mr. Mangione has been unfairly treated since the outset in every way and has successfully fought off terrorism charges and the death penalty, while also fighting at the same time two simultaneous prosecutions in two jurisdictions who are trying to punish him twice for the exact conduct.

He's been treated differently from every other defendant charged with this offense in New York, however, thankfully, New York law does not allow this. New York law does not permit a person to be prosecuted and punished twice for the exact same crime under a statute that governs successive prosecutions. It's also known as the double jeopardy law.

Today's guilty plea triggers the statute, and we just filed our motion in state court, explaining why the state charges must be dismissed under New York's double jeopardy protections. We will not be taking any other questions. Thank you so much for coming.

BASH: OK, let me go back to Kara and Shimon. I do want to talk about some of the details of what Luigi Mangione admitted in court, but just to explain what we just heard from his attorneys. Kara, and you have been talking about this. One of the reasons why they decided to go ahead and have this plea deal is so that the charges in New York State could be dropped because of what's known as the double jeopardy law in New York State.

SCANNELL: That's right, Dana. That was one of the objectives today by Luigi Mangione's team. He was being charged both federally and in state court, and the state trial was set to begin on September 8. But under New York civil jeopardy law, someone can't be prosecuted for the same crime twice. So that is why we saw this quick, fast-moving plea deal being reached just a few days after the final pre-trial conference earlier this week, leading to Mangione pleading guilty.

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Now, as you heard his lawyers say, they filed a motion to get the state charges dismissed. The state prosecution has not responded to that yet. Although throughout this entire case, they have been saying that they think they did the legwork on this. They did the investigation. They caught Mangione, and they wanted to bring this case to justice. So, we will wait and see what their reaction is going to be in court. We can expect them to probably try to fight this. It will be up to the judge overseeing the state case to make that decision and then sides could appeal. But it does look like the state trial set for September eight will likely be delayed as this is all figured out, but these are still a lot of moving targets, Dana.

BASH: OK. So, Kara, let's go back to what you witnessed in the court -- the courtroom, the way that Mangione, not only admitted to assassinating Brian Thompson, but also explaining how and why he did it.

SCANNELL: That's right, Dana. Mangione began his statement by saying that after years of enduring severe pain for a broken back, he had been navigating obstacles through the healthcare system. He also said that this was an example of other people that he had witnessed, and so he's explaining his motive here that he did this because of his frustration with the healthcare system.

He also said that he knew that Brian Thompson was going to be speaking at the UnitedHealthcare Investor Conference, and that he had reached out to them posing as a manager of $50 billion in assets. He said they got back to him almost immediately, within an hour, which he said was not like his experience dealing with the healthcare industry.

So again, he's saying that this was about greed, this was about healthcare industry, not helping patients. He said that the industry conference would be attended by executives and investors, but no doctors, no nurses and no patients. So, then he went to --

BASH: Kara, I'm going to interrupt you again. Forgive me, but the prosecutors are walking out with the NYPD chief.

JAMIE MCDONALD, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Good afternoon. I'm Jamie McDonald, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. At 6:45 on a December morning, Luigi Mangione stalked and murdered Brian Thompson in cold blood on a public sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan. Just a few moments ago, Mangione pled guilty to his heinous act. This was not a spontaneous act of violence; it was deliberate, calculated, and premeditated.

In the days leading up to the murder, the defendant very carefully prepared for the attack. He tracked Mr. Thompson's whereabouts, conducted surveillance along the route he knew Mr. Thompson would take, and positioned himself to carry out the plan. Then, on a sidewalk on West 54th Street, the defendant murdered Mr. Thompson, shooting him from behind with a nine-millimeter handgun equipped with a silencer.

He shot Thompson twice at close range. The second shot came as Mr. Thompson turned and faced the defendant. The defendant did this as everyday New Yorkers walked nearby, and while the rest of the city woke up to start their day. Mangione then ran away, leaving Mr. Thompson to die. The defendant committed this murder in an attempt to draw public attention to his dislike of certain businesses. But we live in a civilized society governed by the rule of law. We debate, we disagree, we protest. We do not commit murder. No grievance, political belief, or ideological cause can ever justify murder. There can be no celebrity in assassination. Any person who celebrates, encourages, or excuses actions like these is fundamentally wrong.

Mangione attempted to send a public message through violence, but the message that emerges today is very different. Violence is not a legitimate instrument to promote any political or social message, and those who reward -- who is resort to violence in an effort to advance their beliefs, will be prosecuted, convicted, and put in jail. Today, the Southern District of New York, together with our law enforcement partners, writes the final chapter of Mangione's federal prosecution. Now, he stands convicted in federal court and faces life in prison.

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One other point that's important to note, while the defendant pled guilty, our office does not have a plea agreement with him. Instead, he pled open, which means he pled guilty to all pending counts in the indictment. There are no accommodations or concessions, and we are free to seek the maximum penalty under the law. I'd like to thank the dedicated prosecutors of our office's violent, organizations and crime unit, who are beside me, for their remarkable efforts to bring this case.

I would also like to thank the NYPD and the FBI, whose tireless and incredibly sophisticated investigative efforts made this conviction possible. Finally, I want to express, on behalf of all of us here, our deepest sympathy and compassion for the many family members and friends of Brian Thompson. Mr. Thompson's family and many of his friends were in court for the guilty plea today.

I know they will have an opportunity to be heard at sentencing. We all stand in awe of their love for their family and for their friend and their unwavering commitment to seeing justice done in this case. We hope they can take some solace in the fact that from the beginning, we have brought the full force of the federal government to bear in this case.

In this prosecution, we have consistently pursued the maximum penalties under the law as necessary and just punishment for these crimes. The result achieved today now allows our office to seek the maximum penalty allowed, life imprisonment, which as I've conveyed to Mr. Thompson's family is what we intend to seek. I'll now turn it over to Commissioner Tisch.

JESSICA TISCH, NYPD COMMISSIONER: Good afternoon. Thank you, U.S. Attorney McDonald, and thank you to the prosecutors and the federal law enforcement partners who have worked alongside the New York City Police Department throughout this case. Today, Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty in connection with the murder of Brian Thompson on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk in December of 2024.

This is an important moment of accountability, and my thoughts remain first and foremost with Mr. Thompson's family and everyone who knew and loved him. But I also want to take a few minutes today to recognize the extraordinary police work that brought us here. From the moment that Mr. Thompson was assassinated on the morning of December 4, the NYPD mobilized an enormous investigative effort.

Our detectives combed through thousands of hours of surveillance video, followed up on hundreds of tips, and worked through an extraordinary volume of forensic and digital evidence. They used some of the most sophisticated technology available to law enforcement, and they paired it with the kind of painstaking, old-fashioned detective work that has defined the New York City Police Department for generations, interviewing witnesses, canvassing neighborhoods, retracing the suspects' movements and pursuing every viable lead.

Most importantly, they developed a clear image of the man we were looking for and got that image out to the public, and to law enforcement agencies across this country five days after the murder. That work paid off in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where an alert member of the public recognized Mangione and local police took him into custody.

That was not simply a lucky break. It was the culmination of five days of relentless investigative work that gave the public the information it needed to recognize a suspect and gave our law enforcement partners what they needed to act.

This case began with the worst kind of violence on our streets. It was answered by the very best of the New York City Police Department to every member of the NYPD who played a role in this investigation. You should be enormously proud for bringing us to this day. And to those who idolized Luigi Mangione, I say this, violence is not a cause, murder is not a message, and a killer is certainly not a hero. Now, I'd like to introduce the FBI's Assistant Director in Charge for the New York Field Office, Jim Barnacle.

JAMES BARNACLE JR., FBI NEW YORK ASSISTANT DIRECTOR IN CHARGE: Thank you, Commissioner. Good day. My name is James Barnacle. I'm the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI New York Field Office. I want to begin by addressing the family, friends, and colleagues of Brian Thompson. We had the chance to sit down with the family this morning, and they are still grieving, and they have been grieving for almost two years. As Brian was taken away in the most heinous way possible.

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They lost a son, a brother, a husband, and a father, and a friend to many colleagues, and other people. Family deserves closure, the clarity, and the assurance that every step taken throughout our investigation, the New York City Police Department's investigation, the Altoona Police Department's investigation, and the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecution, reflected the gravity of the situation and the importance of Brian's life.

While today's plea doesn't replace the void he left behind. I hope it offers a glimmer of the closure that the Thompson family and friends deserve. This tragedy shocked the nation, left a deep impact on everyone it touched. Violence driven by hostility toward opportunity and success, stands in sharp contrast to the values, true Americans hold dear.

But rest assured, this FBI and our partners never stop working to bring this killer to justice. While a plea was entered today, we know the crime has not been erased. Thank you to the FBI's Violent Crime Task Force, our largest partner on that task force, the New York City Police Department, the New York State Police Department.

Thank you to the prosecutors and the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, led by Jamie McDonald. Thank you. And I want to thank the officers and detectives of the New York City Police Department, led by Commissioner Tisch, for your agency's unwavering pursuit of truth and accountability.

Thank you, Commissioner. I also like to thank the Altoona Police Department in Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, who helped facilitate the extradition to New York. We're incredibly grateful to our partners and we wish the Thompson family comfort and strength as the legal process continues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you all.

BASH: OK. We have been -- we've been watching the U.S. attorney who prosecuted this case, the head of the FBI there, who was also in charge of gathering information, along with the commissioner of the NYPD. Jessica Tisch, talking about the work that they did to make this moment happen to get enough evidence so that Luigi Mangione would plead guilty to murdering Brian Thompson.

Shimon and Kara, I'm going to come to you next. And Shimon, I know that you have a new statement from Brian Thompson's family.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And, you know, Dana, you made that point there, that evidence. That evidence is what brought us here today. It was overwhelming evidence that prosecutors gathered here would have been a very hard case to defend for these defense attorneys. Overwhelming evidence, and that is what brought us here today.

And the Brian Thompson family, I cannot imagine what they have been going through. They have been so silent throughout this. We have all been wondering, covering this, where are they? Why haven't we heard from them? And they have been suffering in silence. And for the first time, we got to see them today as they faced Luigi Mangione, as he admitted to executing their father, their husband, and their son, and they wiped tears.

Kara explained. She saw them crying, and this was a moment for them so they could feel at least some closure. And so, following the hearing here, they released a statement, Dana. And again, we have not heard from this family. They have suffered in silence. And what they said, I'm going to read you their statement.

Today's guilty plea marks an important step toward justice for Brian and for our family. 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. 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. Signed the Thompson family.

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A lot here is going to depend now on sentencing. And they are clearly, Dana, right -- Kara, they are clearly sending a message to the judge, do not -- do not let him plead guilty to sort of try and get mercy from you, judge. What he did here was horrific. It is -- this is a strategic move, certainly by the defense because they are hoping that somehow Luigi Mangione doesn't spend the rest of his life in prison. It will be up to the judge to what she decides to sentence him to.

BASH: Right.

PROKUPECZ: I also just want to say something because Dana, if I may, from his attorney when she came out and she spoke. The fact that she took that moment, and this tells you where we're going here. And this is probably not the first time that she has said this, but I was struck that she picked this moment to say what she said.

And they have filed a motion in state court to get the double jeopardy to hopefully get that state case dismissed. But she's essentially making excuses already for what was going on with Luigi Mangione at the time of this. He had severe debilitating pain. It was a healthcare system, a system that failed him. She then goes on to say that he's been treated unfairly. These two cases pending.

It's kind of like at a moment like this, where this family -- I understand she has to defend her client, but we're at a moment here where you have the NYPD saying, a killer is not a hero. You know the FBI talking about that because of what this case and what this act represented. The following that Luigi Mangione got after this, people thinking that he's some kind of a hero.

I was really struck by Karen Agnifilo taking this moment to go into this whole thing about how -- somehow giving excuse to what Luigi Mangione did here in this moment. And still, standing here, Dana, and just knowing what Kara was experiencing in court, and with that family, the Thompson family sitting there, I cannot imagine for them what this has been like and what this day means for them.

BASH: Yeah. No question that the -- as you said, the new statement that we heard from the Thompson family was strategic, and it certainly dovetails with what we just heard from the top prosecutor, which is that they are going to push the judge for life in prison.

Kara, you were in the court room. You saw the Thompson family and how they reacted to looking at Luigi Mangione, listening to the way that he described stalking their family member, their father, their brother, their husband, their child, and then murdering him in cold blood. What was it like to see them?

SCANNELL: Dana, it was very difficult for them. They were filling the front row of the courtroom as Mangione was off to their left. He was seated. And as he explained both his motivation for committing this murder, she said he was essentially failed by the healthcare system, viewing them as greedy. And then he described how he had made a partial gun, using a 3D printer, added a silencer, and then intentionally shot Brian Thompson. He shot him dead, and he said that he knew what he was doing was illegal.

And it was at that moment that I especially saw his widow, Brian Thompson's widow, react to that, where she seemed to have tensed up. You could see her breathing was quivering, her eyes got emotional. She was clutching the arm of the person next to her, just kind of hearing the directness, the coldness in this statement. There was not a sense of remorse in Luigi Mangione's voice. He just stated it as a fact.

And then at a second moment, when the judge was asking the prosecutor about this, and she asked if between that first shot and the second shot to Brian Thompson. If Brian Thompson knew what was happening at that moment because he was shot from behind, and the prosecutor said he believed that he did.

And at that moment, I again saw a big reaction in that front row by Brian Thompson's family members, again grabbing themselves, wiping tears from their eyes, kind of just hearing the coldness of this murder, this assassination that had taken place, and throughout Mangione not showing any signs of remorse, being very calm in his -- in his speaking, no voice cracking, no reaction, and he didn't look over toward the family when he said this and then he was escorted out of the court.

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BASH: Yeah.

SCANNELL: But the family members will have an opportunity to speak at a sentencing that has been scheduled for December 18. And it sounds like they will be speaking --

PROKUPECZ: Because you're right, the prosecutor indicated that they will have a moment. You know, Kara, the thing you said about that, the point that you're making there when the prosecutor said the first shot, and then that tells you, he was alive in those moments, right? I mean, that was the whole point of that and just the significance of that. My God, how he knew, like he didn't basically die immediately.

SCANNELL: We have seen, we have shown the public video of the surveillance video of the hooded man, walking up behind Brian Thompson and setting off those shots. In the state court suppression hearings last December, those of us present actually saw the whole video. And what you see past that moment where we freeze the frame because the murder is taking place is you see Brian Thompson fall to the right, and you see Mangione walk up, look over at him, and then cross the street.

So, it appears he is taking a look to make sure he's down, and then he walks off. And as the prosecutor noted today, he didn't wait to see if there was any help coming. It was calculated. It was cold. It was intentional -- intention to kill him. BASH: All right. You guys don't go anywhere. We're so grateful that we had you in the courtroom, and I will just again make another plug for the fact that it is really ridiculous that there are no cameras in 2026 in federal court, so that we could see it ourselves. I mean, it's -- we should be able to, but luckily, we had you, Kara, to do that, and of course Shimon as well to keeping us up to speed as you were in there.

Don't go too far though because we have a former federal prosecutor, Elliot Williams, joining us now. And just picking up on -- I think one of the major two themes that we've seen or one theme that we've seen competing this morning, which is, did he -- do this because he saw no other way because he was so frustrated, talked about the back pain.

He talked about the fact that he couldn't get through to anybody united until he pretended to be an investor, and then he got the information very quickly about where the CEO would be versus the very clear and direct plea from the prosecutor and from the commissioner. There can be no celebrity in assassination. Violence is not a cause. Murder is not a cause. A killer is certainly not a hero.

On the prosecution side and the police law enforcement side, they are obviously trying to tamp down on what has been happening since this execution took place, which is, he has become a cause celeb, and the idea that now that we know more about how he went about this, you all who are lionizing this man need to stop.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right. That's sort of the public relations game and war that they're fighting. Now, the questions about the back pain are relevant, and you know, disagree with Shimon a little bit. It's relevant legally only in that it provides some rationale for what he was doing. In that, at sentencing, his defense attorneys can say as a way of lowering his sentence, potentially, we'll look at all the pain that he was in, look at all the suffering.

Now whether that is relevant, you know, whether the judge buys that, who knows? But you know all parties today were doing what they needed to do. The prosecutors made clear that this was an individual who admitted to crossing state lines for the purpose of killing someone, and in doing so, put that person in fear of their death. That's all they needed to establish on the record for convicting someone or at least getting a guilty plea on a stalking charge.

The defense attorneys repeatedly made the point that, wait a second, there's another state prosecution happening, and that's not -- doesn't comport with the constitution. That's going to be a legal fight. We will see what happens there, but both sides sort of acted in the roles they needed to play today.

BASH: Well, speaking of the state charges, I want to go back to Kara. Kara, you have some more information about this whole question of double jeopardy.

SCANNELL: Yes, Dana. We just received the filing that Luigi Mangione's team has made to the state court judge to try to get this thrown out. I just got it a few minutes ago, but they're essentially asking the judge to dismiss the second-degree murder count and other counts because of this dual prosecution. So, it's their legal arguments of why they think that his plea today to the federal charges overruns the state charges where he's facing murder.

And the reason I've talked to a number of defense lawyers about this, and I actually think that Mangione's team has a pretty good shot at getting the state charges thrown out because of the nature of the crime, it was one victim, it was one act of shooting. And so, under New York law, you can't be charged for the same crime twice with the same level of evil in it. And that they believe would encompass that.

That being said, the difference between a stalking charge and federal charge and a murder charge