Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in striking reversal

Luigi Mangione in an earlier appearance in state court, ahead of a scheduled murder trial. The Ivy League graduate pleaded guilty to separate stalking charges in federal court. David Dee Delgado-Pool/Getty Images Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges on Friday, throwing a wrench into a separate state murder trial scheduled to begin next month over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.In the striking development, Mangione reversed his previous not guilty plea in federal court as members of Thompson's family looked on from the front row. Mangione wore a khaki T-shirt and pants. Journalists and members of the public — some of them fans of the 28-year-old — filled the wooden benches in the downtown Manhattan courtroom.US District Judge Margaret Garnett will decide Mangione's sentence at a later date.In federal court, Mangione was facing two charges related to stalking Thompson before the healthcare executive was shot outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024. Both charges, which he pleaded guilty to on Friday, carried a maximum possible punishment of life in prison without parole. Garnett previously threw out death penalty-eligible murder and firearms charges that had been sought by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. The scene outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan where Luigi Mangione appeared on Friday, August 14, 2026. TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images In a New York state courthouse down the block, Mangione remains — for now — scheduled to go to trial on September 8 on murder charges from the Manhattan district attorney's office. He pleaded not guilty to those charges.Now that Mangione pleaded guilty in the federal stalking case, his attorneys are likely to ask Justice Gregory Carro, the state judge overseeing the murder case, to toss the murder charges under double jeopardy grounds. A massive five-day manhunt ensued in 2024 after Thompson was gunned down, eventually ending in Mangione's arrest when local police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, responded to a call that someone matching the suspect shooter's description was eating breakfast inside a McDonald's.Mangione's case has been closely watched due to the gruesome nature of Thompson's killing and the resulting shock it sent across corporate America about whether they were doing enough to protect their top executives. Mangione has also gathered a following both in person and online, some of whom have made him a cause célèbre.This story is developing… Read next Jacob Shamsian is a correspondent on Business Insider's Enterprise news desk. He is also a Global Reporter for Axel Springer.He was previously on BI's Legal Affairs desk, covering major litigation, courtroom trials, and the legal industry.Jacob has reported on the criminal trials of Donald Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sean "Diddy" Combs, R. Kelly, and Anna Sorokin (AKA Anna Delvey), He's also covered blockbuster civil trials, including both E. Jean Carroll v. Trump trials, the New York Attorney General's fraud trial against Trump, Sarah Palin v. The New York Times, and Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard.His stories have been cited in judicial rulings, lawsuits, letters from congressional committees, and in numerous media publications. He was a pool reporter in Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal trial.Jacob has been interviewed on CNN, the docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly," ABC's "Good Morning America," and BBC News, among other programs. His work has been cited by media outlets, including The New York Times, Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and New York magazine. He's also written for GQ, The Awl, The New Republic, Entertainment Weekly, Time, and Modern Farmer.You can reach Jacob on Signal at JacobShamsian.07. Brent D. Griffiths Brent Griffiths is a senior reporter at Business Insider who covers AI and tech.Previously, he worked at the Washington Post as a researcher on Power Up and the Finance 202. He started his career at Politico where he worked on the web production team and covered breaking news. His passion for covering politics has only grown since he cut his teeth covering the presidential campaign as a student journalist. He's also contributed to the Almanac of American Politics. Trial