New York City Council pushes bill to take press passes away from 'Mangionistas'
The New York City Council is considering a bill that would make it easier to strip official press passes away from people who abuse them or use them for non-journalistic purposes.
"We are introducing a bill today, sponsored by Councilmember Banks that will make reforms to press credentials to solve the problem of the Luigi Mangione fangirl, if you will," City Council Speaker Julie Menin told FOX 5 New York's "Good Day New York" Thursday morning. "These fangirls, who are not journalists, are showing up at the trial with press credentials that the City of New York is giving to them."
A trio of Mangione supporters drew national attention in May after showing off their city-issued press passes to the New York Post outside the courthouse on the day of one of the assassin's hearings.
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"F--- Brian Thompson," one young woman, identified as Ashley Rojas, told the paper, referring to the UnitedHealthcare CEO Mangione killed in December 2024. "That’s all I want to say. F--- Brian Thompson. F--- his mom."
Another, Lena Weissbrot, appeared to justify the assassination by claiming that Thompson "was responsible for more deaths than Usama bin Laden," the Al Qaeda leader and mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks.
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani later told reporters that "those three individuals should not have received press passes."
Now, the City Council is looking to streamline the process to take them away.
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The bill, introduced Thursday and co-sponsored by council members Chris Banks, Carmen De La Rosa and Inna Vernikov, would give the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) authority to suspend or revoke a press pass if the "preponderance of the evidence" shows it's justified.
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That lowers the threshold from current rules, which require "clear and convincing evidence" to justify taking away press passes.
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"We want them to reform their practices so it's really journalists, legitimate journalists, who should be getting the press credentials," Menin, who used to be MOME's commissioner, said in the FOX 5 interview.
Mangione pleaded guilty to federal charges earlier this year, and his legal team is fighting to have New York state-level charges dismissed on double jeopardy grounds.
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He killed Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota, on a Manhattan sidewalk on Dec. 5, 2024. Surveillance video shows Mangione sneak up on him from behind and open fire with a silenced handgun, before fleeing on a bicycle.
He made his way to a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police arrested him after customers and restaurant workers recognized him from a wanted poster.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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