Facebook slashes price, size of Portal video call gadget

Facebook is slashing the price and the size of the Portal, its screen and camera-equipped gadget for making video calls with friends and family as it attempts to get the device into more homes.

A smaller version will now cost $129 and will come with an 8 inch display. A larger version with a 10 inch display will cost $179.

A new screenless Portal device that attaches to a television set will be $149.

In this photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, product manager Bill Park demonstrates Facebook Portal TV during an event in San Francisco. Facebook is slashing the price and the size of the Portal, its screen and camera-equipped gadget for making video calls with friends and family as it attempts to get the device into more homes. A smaller version will now cost $129 and have an 8 inch display. A larger version will cost $179 and have a 10 inch display. (AP PhotoEric Risberg)

Last year's models were bigger and cost more — $199 for a 10.1 inch display and $349 for at 15.6 inch screen.

Facebook isn't saying how many Portals it's sold since it launched the first models last fall. It remains unclear how many people want a Facebook-branded smart camera in their homes, given the company's history of privacy problems .

Facebook executives unveiled the new gadget at a small event in San Francisco this week. In addition to losing a few inches, Portal has been redesigned to look less like a space-age gadget and more like a picture frame.

In this photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, product manager Bill Lee demonstrates the new Facebook Portal during an event in San Francisco. At right is the Portal Mini. Facebook is slashing the price and the size of the Portal, its screen and camera-equipped gadget for making video calls with friends and family as it attempts to get the device into more homes. A smaller version will now cost $129 and have an 8 inch display. A larger version will cost $179 and have a 10 inch display. (AP PhotoEric Risberg)

The product is also launching in more countries and will work with WhatsApp to make video calls, in addition to Facebook's Messenger app. And will now stream Amazon Prime videos.

Facebook has tried to assuage privacy concerns with the Portal. The service will not show ads, but "we are using Facebook's infrastructure, so some data may inform ads on Facebook," said Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, vice president of virtual reality and augmented reality. "But that's not the point of it, it's not something that is going to be material to Facebook."

For instance, if someone makes a lot of video calls on Portal, they might see ads for video calling devices elsewhere. But Facebook says it doesn't use the content of the calls for ad targeting, though Bosworth declined to commit to never doing so in the future.

In this photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, product manager Bill Park demonstrates Facebook Portal TV during an event in San Francisco. Facebook is slashing the price and the size of the Portal, its screen and camera-equipped gadget for making video calls with friends and family as it attempts to get the device into more homes. (AP PhotoEric Risberg)

The Portal and the Portal Mini go on sale Oct. 15; the screenless version ships on Nov. 5.

In this photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, new Facebook Portal products are displayed during an event in San Francisco. From left is the Portal, the Portal mini and Portal TV. Facebook is slashing the price and the size of the Portal, its screen and camera-equipped gadget for making video calls with friends and family as it attempts to get the device into more homes. (AP PhotoEric Risberg)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, new Facebook Portal products are displayed during an event in San Francisco. Facebook is slashing the price and the size of the Portal, its screen and camera-equipped gadget for making video calls with friends and family as it attempts to get the device into more homes. A smaller version will now cost $129 and have an 8 inch display. A larger version will cost $179 and have a 10 inch display. (AP PhotoEric Risberg)

NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione’s lawyers contend that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision to seek the death penalty against him in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was tainted by her prior work as a lobbyist at a firm that represented the insurer’s parent company.

Bondi was a partner at Ballard Partners before leading the Justice Department’s charge to turn Mangione’s federal prosecution into a capital case, creating a “profound conflict of interest” that violated his due process rights, his lawyers wrote in a court filing late Friday. They want prosecutors barred from seeking the death penalty and some charges thrown out. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9.

By involving herself in the death penalty decision and making public statements suggesting that Mangione deserves execution, Bondi broke a vow she made before taking office in February that she would follow ethical regulations and bow out of matters pertaining to Ballard clients for a year, Mangione’s lawyers said.

They argued Bondi has continued to profit from her work for Ballard — and, indirectly, from its work for UnitedHealth Group — through a profit-sharing arrangement with the lobbying firm and a defined contribution plan it administers.

The “very person” empowered to seek Mangione’s death "has a financial stake in the case she is prosecuting,” his lawyers wrote. Her conflict of interest “should have caused her to recuse herself from making any decisions on this case,” they added.

Messages seeking comment were left for the Justice Department and Ballard Partners.

Bondi announced in April that she was directing Manhattan federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, declaring even before Mangione was formally indicted that capital punishment was warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

Thompson, 50, was killed Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, 27, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison. Neither trial has been scheduled.

Friday’s filing put the focus back on Mangione’s federal case a day after a marathon pretrial hearing ended in his fight to bar prosecutors in his state case from using certain evidence found during his arrest, such as a gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which he purportedly described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive. A ruling isn't expected until May.

Mangione’s defense team, led by the husband-and-wife duo of Karen Friedman-Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo, zeroed in on Bondi’s past lobbying work as they seek to convince U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett to rule out capital punishment, throw out some charges and exclude the same evidence they want suppressed from the state case.

In a September court filing, Mangione’s lawyers argued that Bondi’s announcement that she was ordering prosecutors to seek the death penalty — which she followed with Instagram posts and a TV appearance — showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” They also said her remarks tainted the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later.

Bondi’s statements and other official actions — including a highly choreographed perp walk that saw Mangione led up a Manhattan pier by armed officers, and the Trump administration’s flouting of established death penalty procedures — “have violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and have fatally prejudiced this death penalty case,” his lawyers said.

In a court filing last month, federal prosecutors argued that “pretrial publicity, even when intense, is not itself a constitutional defect.”

Rather than dismissing the case outright or barring the government from seeking the death penalty, prosecutors argued, the defense’s concerns can best be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case and ensuring Mangione’s rights are respected at trial.

“What the defendant recasts as a constitutional crisis is merely a repackaging of arguments” rejected in previous cases, prosecutors said. “None warrants dismissal of the indictment or categorical preclusion of a congressionally authorized punishment.”

Mangione’s lawyers said they want to investigate Bondi’s ties to Ballard and the firm’s relationship with UnitedHealth Group and will ask for various materials, including details of Bondi’s compensation from the firm, any direction she's given Justice Department employees regarding the case or UnitedHealthcare, and sworn testimony from “all individuals with personal knowledge of the relevant matters."

FILE - This image taken from video released by Pennsylvania State Police shows Luigi Mangione, a suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pa., on Dec. 9, 2024. (Pennsylvania State Police via AP)

Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing, Thursday , Dec. 18, 2025, in New York. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)