Luigi Mangione changed his plea in court from not guilty to guilty on federal stalking charges after admitting he shot Brian Thompson in Manhattan. The plea puts his federal case on a new track while the state murder trial tied to the December 4, 2024 killing remains slated to move ahead with jury selection on September 8.
Luigi Mangione in court
Mangione told the court that after years of severe pain from a broken back, he used a 3-D printer to build a firearm. He also said, “I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died...I knew what I was doing was illegal.”
That admission matters because it turns a disputed accusation into a statement made in court by the defendant himself. It also leaves the federal stalking case in a different posture from the separate state murder case, which still carries the September 8 start date for jury selection.
Brian Thompson in Manhattan
Thompson was the UnitedHealthcare CEO killed on December 4, 2024. Mangione’s plea links the federal stalking charges to that killing and keeps the attention on the same act that led to the state case.
Bill Maher discussed Mangione during the opening monologue of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, calling attention to the crowd outside the courthouse. He said, “And the Mangionistas – that’s what they call the groupies outside the courthouse, they took it hard. One of them said, ‘I don’t think this is a concession or admission of guilt.’ Bitch, he just said that he did it, okay?!”
Real Time with Bill Maher
Maher also repeated Mangione’s own words and said, “the guy who was getting the runaround from the healthcare system about his bad back? So, he murdered a healthcare executive randomly. That guy. He pleaded guilty in court. He said, ‘I shot Mr. Thompson and I knew what I was doing.’”
He added, “On the bright side, you’ll always know where he is when you call.” He also discussed Donald Trump’s ruse of hiding in an airport catering truck to secretly switch planes and evade a potential Iranian missile, then said, “He can pull this off and he can’t clean a pool?”
The state case now sits on the sharper question: how the guilty plea will affect the murder trial already set to begin with jury selection on September 8. For readers tracking the case, the next practical marker is that state-court date, because that is where the broader killing case is still headed.
