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Biden can't pardon Luigi Mangione on state charges | Fact check

BrieAnna J. Frank   Paste BN
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Editor’s note: Officials announced federal charges against Luigi Mangione on Dec. 19, several days after this article was published. This does not affect the rating on this claim because it was false at the time it was made.

The claim: Biden can pardon Luigi Mangione

A Dec. 9 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) claims President Joe Biden could get involved in a high-profile criminal case.  

“Biden has the chance to pardon luigi mangione and it would be the funniest thing ever,” reads the text on the image, which is a screenshot of a post on X.  

The Instagram post was liked more than 6,000 times in six days. Other versions of the claim circulated on Facebook and X. 

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Our rating: False

Presidents can only pardon individuals for federal crimes. Mangione is not eligible for a presidential pardon because he has only been charged with state-level crimes as of Dec. 16, experts told Paste BN.

Constitution allows presidential clemency for federal offenses

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot Dec. 4 outside of a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan, prompting a multi-day search that led to the arrest of 26-year-old Luigi Mangione at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s.

An arrest warrant filed in New York City lists several charges against Mangione, including second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He was also charged with crimes in Pennsylania, including possession of an unlicensed firearm and forgery, The Associated Press reported.

The claim that Biden could pardon Mangione came days after he pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted of federal gun and tax charges earlier in the year. The president previously said he would not do so.But Biden’s pardon power is “irrelevant” in Mangione’s case because it only applies to federal crimes, said Columbia University law professor Philip Bobbitt.“The federal murder statute requires various factual elements," Bobbitt said.

Those scenarios include murders related to bank robbery, federal court cases, drugs, sex crime, murder for hire, mail, ships at sea or federal officials, Bobbitt said. None of these are relevant to the Mangione case.Federal prosecutors could opt to charge Mangione in relation to his alleged interstate travel in the case as well, CNN reported.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is the entity that charged Mangione with second-degree murder, meaning New York Gov. Kathy Hochul could pardon him, Fordham University law professor Cheryl Bader told Paste BN.  

There’s no indication Hochul has any interest in doing so.  

She referred to Thompson’s murder as “horrific” and said she was coordinating with the district attorney’s office to ensure Mangione "is tried and held accountable” in a Dec. 10 statement.  

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The U.S. Constitution's ban on presidential clemency for state crimes explains why Biden would not have been able to pardon President-elect Donald Trump after he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in his New York hush money trial, as Bader said and Paste BN previously reported.   

Biden was able, however, to commute sentences for nearly 1,500 people and pardon 39 others on Dec. 12, in what Paste BN reported was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The X user who made the post included in the Facebook image later said it was a joke.

Paste BN has addressed an array of claims related to Thompson’s shooting death, including a satirical claim that an image shows Mangione’s fake ID and false claims that separate images show a UnitedHealthcare job listing for a new CEO and an Elon Musk post defending insurance companies after the shooting.  

Paste BN reached out to Mangione's lawyer and the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive responses.

Check Your Fact and Lead Stories also debunked the claim.  

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