NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione supporters, who have been granted New York City press credentials, gleefully celebrated the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in comments to the New York Daily News on Monday and pointed to plans to spread their message when jury selection starts.

“I’m saying f--- Brian Thompson. I don’t give a f--- he died,” said Ashley Rojas, who declined to provide her name, though it was visible on the press badge around her neck, alongside a button with Mangione depicted as a saint.

“His children are better off without him. They need to learn to not be like their dad. And enjoy the blood money, kids,” added fellow “independent journalist” Lena Weissbrot.

Weissbrot likened Thompson to the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks.

“He’s responsible for more deaths than Osama bin Laden, and I remember Americans celebrating when Osama bin Laden was killed,” she said. “It’s not like we don’t understand heroic violence or when violence is good. That’s, like, as American as America gets.”

The issuance of press badges to supporters of the accused killer serves to confer legitimacy on the agenda-driven activists. It also raises questions about City Hall loosening the requirements needed to qualify for a once-hard-to-obtain New York City press pass.

When the NYPD was in charge of issuing press credentials, the process appeared to be more selective. Reporters were required to show six examples of crossing police and fire lines to cover breaking news in the five boroughs. Authority over the program shifted from the NYPD to the mayor’s office with the 2021 passage of a law by the City Council, which then-Mayor Bill de Blasio adopted into law.

Now required are six “articles, commentaries, books, photographs, videos, films, or audios published, broadcast, or cablecast” from six separate “in person” events. A spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment on Monday said that there has been no official change in guidance.

The official said that once issued, the mayor’s office has few paths to revoking a press card, as doing so requires a hearing with the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings.

Rojas, Weissbrot and Abril Rios operate social media accounts under the handle “Mangionistas.” On Monday, they said they were planning to set up tables outside the courthouse when jury selection starts in Mangione’s state case in September with information on jury nullification, which is when a jury votes “not guilty” despite believing a defendant committed the charged crime.

Asked about the ethics of doing so, Rios said, “We can’t go and go up to the jurors that are selected. That would be jury tampering. But we can talk to anyone in public.”

The Daily News reached out to the Office of Court Administration about rules surrounding such activity. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.

In a statement, Mangione’s defense team distanced him from his hardcore supporters.

“These individuals do not represent the views of Luigi, nor the tens of thousands who have shown their support from around the world. The only people who speak for Luigi are his attorneys. We condemn these vile and irresponsible statements that have no place in the discourse around these cases,” Karen Friedman Agnifilo said.

Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in his state case, in which authorities allege he gunned down Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown on Dec. 4, 2024, as the healthcare executive from Minnesota arrived for an annual conference. Mangione also faces federal charges alleging he stalked Thompson for weeks before the killing in broad daylight and wrote of plans to “wack” a CEO “at the annual parasitic bean counter convention.” He also maintains his innocence in that case.

On Monday, Rojas specifically complained to the Daily News about mainstream media’s lack of coverage of the circumstances of Mangione’s arrest five days after the shooting at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and the search warrants executed at the scene.

But those claims are belied by extensive coverage of the matter — and Mangione’s legal positions — by the the Daily News and countless other mainstream outlets, including wall-to-wall coverage of the weekslong evidence suppression hearings in December.

Throngs of journalists packed the courtroom Monday morning to break news of Judge Gregory Carro’s decision to suppress certain evidence from the trial on the grounds it was improperly obtained by Pennsylvania officers. Carro handed prosecutors a partial victory in allowing them to present evidence of the alleged murder weapon and “manifesto,” which were recovered at the precinct.

While complaining of bias in traditional media, Rojas was frank about the one-sided coverage by the “Mangionistas.”

“We’re essentially here to be Luigi Mangione’s advocate as well as bring social issues to light and also having more youth engagement,” she said. “We act as press since it’s very obvious that legacy media has some sort of agenda against Luigi Mangione and his supporters, and we’re here to prove that we have the power as the people to get the public informed.”

Rios made a distinction between “journalist” and “press” in an Instagram post later Monday, writing, “I’m not a reporter I work in social media which is also press thank you.”

The Daily News asked City Hall how many of Mangione’s supporters had been granted press credentials, but did not hear back by press time, nor would the mayor’s office provide comment on the inflammatory statements made by the Mangione fans about his alleged victim.

Information recently obtained via a freedom of information request filed by freelance journalist Victoria Bekiempis, who covers New York courts for The Guardian, New York Magazine and other outlets, said 32 “independent journalists” had been granted credentials for coverage of Mangione’s prosecution. About half were approved during Mayor Eric Adams’ tenure.

In the last days of his term, the Adams administration proposed new restrictions on the press passes that raised some eyebrows among First Amendment advocates, including adding a “Premier Press Card” for journalists with more than 20 years of experience and expanding the criteria for denying or revoking a pass.

Commenting on the Daily News’ reporting Monday, Adams said on X, “What makes this even more disturbing is that some of the individuals making these statements hold official NYC press credentials. Press passes exist to provide legitimate journalists access to scenes, events, and restricted areas so they can inform the public, not so radical activists can masquerade as members of the media while promoting extremism and political violence.”

Adams’ proposed changes also included a rule that would have likely weeded out the “Mangionistas,” requiring applicants to either be employed or affiliated with a media organization or have a membership to a journalism association.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani opposed the ideas, describing them in January as an “attack on the press.” The 34-year-old mayor has embraced new media, with influencers playing a major role in propelling his election victory last year.

During his first week in City Hall, he hosted a briefing for content creators friendly to his administration.

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