The New York City Council is weighing legislation aimed at making it easier to revoke official press credentials from people accused of misusing the passes or using them for purposes unrelated to journalism.
“We are introducing a bill today, sponsored by Councilmember Banks, that will reform press credentials to address the problem of the Luigi Mangione fangirl, if you will,” City Council Speaker Julie Menin said Thursday morning on FOX 5 New York’s “Good Day New York.” “These fangirls, who are not journalists, are appearing at the trial with press credentials issued by the City of New York.”
Three Mangione supporters attracted national attention in May when they displayed city-issued press passes to the New York Post outside the courthouse during one of the accused assassin’s hearings.
(L-R) Ashley Rojas and Abril Rios pose for a photo outside of New York State Supreme Court in New York City, NY, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. The pair are among certain influencers who have been granted NYC press passes. (John M. Taggart for News Media)
“F— Brian Thompson,” one of the women, identified as Ashley Rojas, told the newspaper, referring to the UnitedHealthcare CEO whom Mangione killed in December 2024. “That’s all I want to say. F— Brian Thompson. F— his mom.”
Another woman, Lena Weissbrot, appeared to defend the killing, saying Thompson “was responsible for more deaths than Usama bin Laden,” the Al Qaeda leader who masterminded the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Luigi Mangione shouts while officers restrain him as he arrives for his extradition hearing at Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (David Dee Delgado for News Media)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani later told reporters that “those three individuals should not have received press passes.”
The City Council is now seeking to simplify and speed up the process for stripping New York City press credentials from holders deemed to have misused them.
Lena Weissbrot, a Luigi Mangione supporter and credentialed “independent journalist” is pictured outside Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Molly Crane-Newman/Getty Images)
RELATED: Joy Behar Questions Sunny Hostin on The View’s AI Sellout
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.
That lowers the threshold from current rules, which require “clear and convincing evidence” to justify taking away press passes.
(L-R) Ashley Rojas and Abril Rios pose wait in the hallway of New York State Supreme Court to watch a hearing in the Luigi Mangione case in New York City, NY, Tuesday, August 11, 2026. (John M. Taggart for News Media)
“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.
(L-R) Ashley Rojas and Abril Rios pose walk through the hallway of New York State Supreme Court to watch a hearing in the Luigi Mangione case in New York City, NY, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (John M. Taggart for News Media)
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.