Luigi Mangione was indicted Thursday on a federal homicide cost within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a required step as prosecutors work to make good on the Trump administration’s order to hunt the demise penalty for what it known as a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
Mangione’s indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, features a cost of homicide by means of use of a firearm, which carries the opportunity of the demise penalty. The indictment, which mirrors a prison grievance introduced after Mangione’s arrest final December, additionally expenses him with stalking and a gun offence.
His legal professionals have argued that U.S. Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi’s announcement this month ordering prosecutors to hunt the demise penalty was a “political stunt” that corrupted the grand jury course of and disadvantaged him of his constitutional proper to due course of.
The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a outstanding Maryland actual property household faces separate federal and state homicide expenses after authorities say he gunned down Thompson, 50, exterior a Manhattan lodge on Dec. 4 as the chief arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor convention.
Surveillance video confirmed a masked gunman capturing Thompson from behind. Police say the phrases “delay,” “deny” and “depose” have been scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase generally used to explain how insurers keep away from paying claims.
The killing and ensuing five-day search resulting in Mangione’s arrest rattled the enterprise group, with some well being insurers deleting pictures of executives from their web pages and switching to on-line shareholder conferences. On the identical time, some medical insurance critics have rallied round Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over protection denials and hefty medical payments.
Quick-approaching deadline
Mangione’s federal indictment got here simply earlier than a deadline Friday for prosecutors to both file one or search a delay. It was not instantly clear when he might be dropped at federal court docket in Manhattan for an arraignment.
WATCH | Mangione’s case attracts consideration of crowd exterior court docket:
Crowds flock to Luigi Mangione’s NYC court docket look
A crowd of individuals, many supporters, flocked to a New York Metropolis courthouse, the place Luigi Mangione pleaded not responsible to expenses of first-degree homicide and terrorism within the demise of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A message looking for remark was left for a spokesperson for Mangione’s defence group.
Bondi introduced April 1 that she was directing federal prosecutors in Manhattan to hunt the demise penalty in opposition to Mangione. It was the primary time the Justice Division stated it was pursuing capital punishment since President Donald Trump returned to workplace Jan. 20 with a vow to renew federal executions after they have been halted below the earlier administration.
In her announcement, Bondi described Thompson’s killing as “an act of political violence.”
Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, countered in a subsequent court docket submitting that “the US authorities intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt.” She needs prosecutors blocked from looking for the demise penalty.
Friedman Agnifilo and her co-counsel argued that Bondi’s announcement — which was adopted by posts to her Instagram account and a tv look — violated long-established Justice Division protocols and “indelibly prejudiced” the grand jury course of that in the end led to his indictment.
Mangione stays locked up at a federal jail in Brooklyn. His state expenses carry a most punishment of life in jail.
Prosecutors have stated the 2 instances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state case anticipated to go to trial first.
It wasn’t instantly clear if Mangione’s indictment Thursday will change the order.
Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 in Altoona, Penn., about 370 kilometres west of New York Metropolis and whisked to Manhattan by airplane and helicopter.
Police stated Mangione had a handgun that matched the one used within the capturing and different gadgets together with a pocket book by which they are saying he expressed hostility towards the medical insurance business and rich executives.
Among the many entries, prosecutors stated, was one from August 2024 that stated “the goal is insurance coverage” as a result of “it checks each field” and one from October that describes an intent to “wack” an insurance coverage firm CEO. UnitedHealthcare, the most important U.S. well being insurer, has stated Mangione was by no means a consumer.
Friedman Agnifilo has stated she would search to suppress a number of the proof.
