Supporters of accused murderer Luigi Mangione have exposed a collision between victim-blaming activism, politicized fandom, and a city hall that handed them press badges—only for even the defendant’s own team to distance itself from them.

Mangionistas vs. Victim’s Memory

The self-styled “Mangionistas” — Ashley Rojas, Lena Weissbrot and Abril Rios — turned a Manhattan courthouse into a stage for ideological spectacle, arriving as credentialed members of the NYC press corps and openly “fangirling” Mangione.¹ One article describes them as “bloodthirsty fans” who “spouted vile hate and unapologetic calls for political violence” while proudly displaying press passes from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration.²

Rojas declared, “I’m saying f*** Brian Thompson. I don’t give a f*** he died,” while wearing a city-issued press badge, according to reporting on the incident.¹ Weissbrot went further, saying Thompson’s teenage sons “are better off without him” and should “enjoy the blood money,” framing the killing as “heroic violence” comparable to Americans celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death.¹²

City Hall and Media Ethics Under Scrutiny

Critics argue the episode shows a collapse of basic journalistic norms: the Mangionistas were “credentialed female journalists” who came “to support the defendant they’re purportedly reporting on and to promote jury nullification,” one account noted.² The use of official press passes for open advocacy raises questions about how Mamdani’s office vetted applicants and whether it effectively endorsed a partisan spectacle.

Even Mangione’s Side Backs Away

Yet the backlash was so intense that Mangione’s own legal team issued a statement disavowing the women and condemning their “vile and irresponsible” rhetoric.¹ From a civil-liberties perspective, the Mangionistas can claim free speech — but from a rule-of-law and victim-rights perspective, their celebration of a CEO’s assassination and denigration of his children illustrates how courtroom perimeters are becoming battlegrounds for extreme political performance rather than sober justice.