A.G. Pam Bondi Says She Wants to Pursue Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has asked federal prosecutors to pursue the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024.

“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi wrote in a statement on Tuesday, April 1.

“After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”

Mangione, 26, faces several charges, including murder and terrorism, across three jurisdictions in connection with Thompson’s fatal shooting outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4, 2024.

He faces murder and stalking charges filed by the Department of Justice, as well as state-level murder and terrorism charges in New York. He’s pleaded not guilty to state charges but has not entered a plea on the federal charges.

Thompson, 50, was shot multiple times by a masked gunman in front of the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan where he and other UnitedHealthcare executives were set to gather for an investor meeting. The shooter then fled on a bike.

Shell casings found at the scene of Thompson’s murder reportedly had the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” on them — a possible reference to “deny, delay, defend,” a phrase used about the insurance industry to describe a strategy of rejecting claims.

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Mangione was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., and authorities alleged that he was found with a “ghost gun,” fake IDs and a “manifesto” claiming “parasites” in the health insurance industry “had it coming.”

As of Tuesday April 1, his legal defense fund has received over $780,000 in donations from supporters, many frustrated with the American healthcare system. At Mangione’s court appearances in February, court-watchers lined up early in the morning for access to the proceedings while others posted a billboard in Lower Manhattan depicting Mangione as a saint alongside the words “Free Luigi.”

In a Monday statement, Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, accused the Trump administration of seeking to “murder” her client, calling the move “barbaric” and motivated by politics, specifically defending a “broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry that continues to terrorize the American people.”

“We are prepared to fight these federal charges, brought by a lawless Justice Department, as well as the New York State charges, and the Pennsylvania charges, and anything else they want to pile on Luigi,” said Friedman Agnifilo. “Luigi is caught in a high-stakes game of tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors, except the trophy is a young man’s life.”

Mangione is incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Sean “Diddy” Combs is also behind bars. Mangione’s next federal court appearance is scheduled for April 18.