Luigi Mangione’s lawyer says New York’s mayor is politicizing his arrest

• Luigi Mangione’s lawyer says his criminal case is being politicized.
• She criticized NYC Mayor Eric Adams’s presence at his first perp-walk from a Manhattan helipad.
• Mangione pleaded not guilty to both state and federal-level murder charges.

A lawyer representing Luigi Mangione says law enforcement is politicizing his arrest and prosecution, complaining that New York City Mayor Eric Adams attended his first perp walk in the state.

“Frankly, your honor, the mayor should know more than anyone of the presumption of innocence,” said attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo at the Monday morning hearing.

Mangione pleaded not guilty at the proceeding, which took place in the courtroom of New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro, a trial judge in Manhattan’s state-level criminal court.

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, following a five-day manhunt for the killer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk. At Monday’s hearing, the Ivy League graduate looked polished, wearing a maroon sweater over a white collared shirt. His wrists were bound with heavy shackles as he walked into the courtroom.

Adams, alongside New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, stood for dramatic photos at the Manhattan helipad where Mangione was flown in on Thursday.

A large group of police officers walked Mangione from the helicopter, making for images that went viral on social media.

“I wanted to look him in the eye to say that, ‘You carried out this terrorist act in my city, the city that the people of New York love,’ and I wanted to be there to show the symbolism of that,” Adams later said.

A grand jury has indicted Adams on federal corruption charges alleging he took bribes from the Turkish government. He’s pleaded not guilty.

“Frankly, I submit that he was trying to detract from those issues by making a spectacle of Mr. Mangione,” Friedman Agnifilo said at Monday’s hearing, according to Courthouse News reporter Erik Uebelacker.

Mangione previously appeared in Manhattan federal court Thursday afternoon on charges brought by the US Justice Department. He has been in federal custody in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office accused Mangione of first-degree murder “in furtherance of terrorism.”

Federal prosecutors brought additional murder charges that, if Mangione is convicted, are death penalty eligible.

The district attorney’s case will go to trial first, the Justice Department announced. A trial date has not yet been set.