Mamdani questions press passes for Mangione supporters, orders review

Three supporters of Luigi Mangione, who have been appearing outside court under official press passes, are now at the center of a broader fight over who gets treated as journalism in New York City. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the three women, who call themselves The Mangionistas, should not have received credentials, and he ordered a review of the city’s press-pass rules.

The group includes Lena Weissbrot, who writes for The Bicoastal Beat, a site she and a colleague started last year, Ashley Rojas, whose social-media following has drawn attention in the case, and Abril Rios. Rojas was among those quoted making graphic remarks about UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, including, “F Brian Thompson,” and saying Thompson’s children were “better off without him.” Mamdani said the case had exposed a larger question about where press access should extend in a changing media environment, but he said the three people involved do not fall within that debate.

The dispute puts a spotlight on the city’s credentialing machinery itself. Press-pass approval now falls under the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, but that authority was previously held by the New York Police Department. The transfer took place in January 2022 after a lawsuit, following years of criticism that police should not control access for working journalists. The earlier shift in control also came after the 2020 protests that followed George Floyd’s murder, when questions grew louder over how much influence police should have over media access at public proceedings.

The scale of the Mangione press scrum has only sharpened those concerns. Dozens of people have obtained press passes connected to the trial, and about half of them were granted before Mamdani became mayor. After Monday’s hearing, the issue intensified as the Mangionistas wore their credentials outside the courthouse and posed for photographs with the passes in hand. Mamdani did not commit to immediate revocation, but he said the city has to keep up with how people get their news and make sure the system is trusted.

The courtroom backdrop has been unusually charged from the start. In January 2026, supporters packed a Manhattan federal courtroom, many of them young women wearing green, a color that has become linked to advocacy for Mangione. Judge Margaret Garnett stressed that decorum had to be maintained and suggested the trial could begin as early as December or January if the death penalty remains on the table.

Mangione faces state murder charges that could bring life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors have already shown surveillance video in court of the Dec. 4, 2024, killing of Brian Thompson in Manhattan and Mangione’s arrest five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles west of the city. The press-pass review now tests whether New York’s credentialing system can still draw a clear line between advocacy and journalism.