New York — Luigi Mangione’s lawyers confirm that Prosecutor Pam Bondi The decision to demand the death penalty Against him in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was tainted by her previous work as a lobbyist for a firm representing the insurance company’s parent company.
Bondi was a partner at Ballard Partners before leading the Justice Department’s charge to turn Mangione’s federal trial into a death penalty case, creating a “profound conflict of interest” that violated his due process rights, his lawyers wrote in a lawsuit late Friday. They demand that prosecutors be prevented from seeking the death penalty and that some charges be dropped. The hearing is scheduled for January 9.
By involving herself in the decision and making of the death penalty Public statements indicate that Mangione deserves to be executedMangione’s lawyers said Bondi had broken a pledge she made before taking office in February to follow ethics regulations and withdraw from matters involving Ballard’s clients for a year.
They argued that Bondi continued to benefit from her work for Ballard — and, indirectly, from her work for UnitedHealth Group — through a profit-sharing arrangement with the lobbying firm and a defined contribution plan it administered.
His lawyers wrote that the “same person” authorized to order Mangione’s death “has a financial interest in the case you are prosecuting.” They added that her conflict of interest “should have led her to recuse herself from making any decisions regarding this case.”
Messages seeking comment were left for the Department of Justice and Ballard Partners.
Bondi announced in April that she had ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan to seek the death penalty, declaring even before Mangione was formally charged that the death penalty was justified in a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, while en route to a Manhattan hotel to attend UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say the words “delay,” “denial” and “deposit” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurance companies avoid paying claims.
Mangione, 27, is an Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family. He was arrested five days later At a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges. State charges carry the possibility of life imprisonment. No date has been set for either trial.
Friday’s filing brought Mangione’s federal case back into focus a day after Marathon pre-trial hearing His fight to prevent prosecutors in his case from using some of the evidence found during his arrest, such as the gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which he allegedly described his intention to “bother” a health insurance executive, ended. A ruling is not expected until May.
Mangione’s defense team, led by husband-and-wife duo Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Mark Agnifilo, focused on Bundy’s past lobbying work as they sought to persuade U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett to rule out the death penalty, dismiss some charges and exclude from the state’s case the very evidence they want to withhold.
In a September court filing, Mangione’s lawyers said Bondi’s announcement that she had ordered prosecutors to seek the death penalty — which she followed up with Instagram posts and television appearances — showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” They also said her statements tainted the grand jury process that led to his indictment a few weeks later.
His lawyers said Bondi’s statements and other official actions — including a highly choreographed crime walk that saw Mangione led into Manhattan Harbor by armed officers, and the Trump administration’s violation of established death penalty procedures — “violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and fatally prejudiced this death penalty case.”
In a lawsuit last month, Federal prosecutors argued That “pretrial publicity, even when extensive, is not in itself a constitutional defect.”
Instead of dismissing the case outright or preventing the government from seeking the death penalty, prosecutors said the best way to ease the defense’s concerns was to carefully question potential jurors about their knowledge of the case and ensure Mangione’s rights at trial were respected.
“What the defendant recast as a constitutional crisis is merely a restatement of arguments” that had been rejected in previous cases, prosecutors said. “Nothing warrants dismissal of the indictment or categorical denial of the sentence approved by Congress.”
Mangione’s lawyers said they want to investigate Bondi’s ties to Ballard and the company’s relationship with UnitedHealth Group and will ask for various materials, including details of Bondi’s compensation from the company, any direction she provided to Justice Department staff regarding the case or UnitedHealthcare, and sworn testimony from “all individuals with personal knowledge of the relevant matters.”