FIRST ON FOX: As Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon tells reporters he will announce a decision Thursday afternoon on whether to seek criminal charges for the murderous Menendez brothers, an attorney for their uncle warns that “new” evidence in the case could be fraud.

In an interview with People this week, Gascon said he doesn’t think the brothers pose a “danger to society” and “probably haven’t for a long time.” He then said in a statement on Thursday that he would announce his decision publicly at a news briefing at 1:30 pm local time.

Erik and Joseph “Lyle” Menendez burst into their parents’ Beverly Hills mansion at 10:30 PM on August 20, 1989, shooting them with shotguns as they sat in the living room eating and watching TV. They murdered their father, former RCA Records executive Jose Menendez, and their mother, Mary “Kitty” Menendez.

WATCH ON FOX NATION: MENENDEZ BROTHERS: VICTIMS OR VILLAINS?

Erik and Lyle Menendez listen during their trial in the 1990s. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said his office will review new evidence in the brothers’ murder case. (Ted Soqui/Sygma)

They later told a therapist that they killed their father because they hated him and that their mother’s murder was a “mercy killing,” according to court documents. They ran out of grenades and had to go to the car to get more before hitting her with a fatal shot.

Over the past year, they’ve turned to new laws in California to try to get out of prison, with a habeas petition claiming they should have been convicted of manslaughter, not murder, and a petition to Gascon’s office asking for revenge.

Read the submission

Their appeal is based on two key pieces of evidence: recently revealed allegations that their father also abused Roy Rossello, a former member of the boy band Menudo, in the 1980s, and a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin Andy Cano, who came up. in 2015, years after his death.

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An undated photo of the Menendez family as it appears on screen during a panel at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 2. Brothers Lyle and Erik were convicted of fatally shooting their parents in 1989. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)

Critics say Gascon’s green light for re-conviction would be controversial because he could be re-elected in less than two weeks and faces a strong challenge from independent candidate Nathan Hochman.

While about two dozen family members have publicly expressed support for their release from prison despite life sentences without the possibility of parole, their uncle opposes any change in sentencing, said his attorney, Kathleen Cady, a leading victim advocate.

In a court filing Wednesday, she asked to file an amicus brief on behalf of Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s brother.

LYLE MENENDEZ, who shot parents along with brother, PLANS FOR LIFE AFTER PRISON

Erik Menendez, center, and his brother Lyle are pictured on August 12, 1991 in Beverly Hills. (MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Cady wrote to the judge that “over the past few days I have received information from several sources that the letter is essentially a fraud.”

In a phone call with Fox News Digital, she declined to discuss details but said she was willing to turn over the evidence to Gascon’s office.

“(The sources) claim that they have evidence that appears to cast doubt on the veracity of this ‘new evidence’ that the defense presented in their habeas petition,” she said.

WATCH: The Menendez brothers’ family speaks out

Erik Menendez and his cousin both testified about abuse by Jose Menendez during the brothers’ second trial after the first ended in a mistrial.

“And neither of us mentioned the letter,” Cady wrote. “While we certainly hope that the Public Prosecution Service has conducted an analysis of the letter, it is much more likely that the letter, if written by Erik, was written in recent years and not before the murders, as the defense is now suggesting. ”

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Pictured is a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez and sent to his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez. (California State Supreme Court, Los Angeles County)

She also noted testimony from witnesses who said the brothers asked them to lie for them under oath.

“Given defendants’ attempts to subvert perjury, the ‘new evidence’ should be viewed with skepticism,” Cady wrote. “But even on its face, the ‘new evidence’ would not require instruction in imperfect self-defense.”

Cano testified at the trial that his cousin told him about the abuse when he was just 13 years old, but prosecutors downplayed the sexual abuse allegations, saying the brothers only wanted to live a lavish lifestyle with their inheritance, pointing out everything they bought after that. the massacres, including a Porsche, Rolex watches and a restaurant.

Andersen, their uncle, agrees with prosecutors that the motive was greed.

THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS: MONSTERS OR WRONG?

The Menendez brothers – Erik, left, and Lyle – sit on the steps of their Beverly Hills home in November 1989. (Ronald L. Soble/Los Angeles Times)

The Menendez brothers are now both in their 50s. They were 21 and 18 years old at the time the murders.

According to their attorney, Mark Geragos, the letter strengthens Cano’s testimony. He has long maintained that the brothers’ sexual abuse allegations were not taken seriously because of contemporary thinking, and has repeatedly said that if they were the “Menendez sisters,” they would never have been convicted of murder.

Between 2005 and earlier this year, Geragos noted, they had exhausted all possible appeals and had resigned themselves to the idea that they would never be released. Both have been exemplary prisoners during that time, he said.

MENENDEZ BROTHERS MOVE CLOSER TO FREEDOM FROM ‘LIFE WITHOUT PARENT’ FOR PARENTS’ MURDERS IN BEVERLY HILLS

Exterior of the former mansion of the Menendez brothers from 1989, with the extensive swimming pool. (Clark Fogg, retired forensic specialist with the Beverly Hills Police Department)

“You could record two songs on there,” he told reporters last week. “You could just become a hardcore or implacable repeat offender, or you could do what they did: create programs, counsel people, develop great programs, mentor people, go to college, get degrees.”

Gascon’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter’s authenticity.

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About 20 family members in favor of a reduced sentence met with Gascon’s office last week. The district attorney has not met with Andersen or responded to his requests for information about the case, Cady said.

“Mr. Gascon has absolutely ignored our requests, and it is frankly insulting that the elected prosecutor is okay with violating the Constitution,” she told Fox News Digital.

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The DA elections will not affect the brothers’ habeas petition, which Cady says should also be dismissed.

“So with all of this, it is Milton Andersen’s continued belief that the sexual assault claims were fabricated, and that they were false, and he believes that the jury returned the right verdict and that the right verdict was committed,” Cady said . “One of the concerns for him, and it should be for everyone, was during the trial. The Menendez brothers tried to get two specific witnesses and lie for them. And those witnesses testified and said, “Yes. to lie for them. ”