A lawyer for Luigi Mangione accused the Ministry of Justice of having supported a “murderous health industry which continues to terrorize the American people”.
The comment came after the Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered prosecutors to ask for the death penalty for the accused killer.
“While pretending to protect against murder, the federal government is moving to commit the pre-housekened murder and sponsored by the state of Luigi,” defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said in a statement. “In doing so, they defend the broken, immoral and murderous health industry which continues to terrorize the American people.”
Earlier Tuesday, Bondi announced that she wanted the government to execute Mangione, accused of having murdered the CEO of Unitedhealthcare, Brian Thompson.
“The murder by Luigi Mangione by Brian Thompson – an innocent man and father of two young children – was a premeditated composure assassination that shocked America,” said Bondi. “After a careful examination, I ordered federal prosecutors to ask for the death penalty in this case when we realize the agenda of President Trump to arrest violent crimes and make America again safe.”
The former Ivy League student faces two criminal cases parallel to Manhattan, one in the Manhattan district prosecutor’s office and one of the federal prosecutors at the US prosecutor’s office in the South New York District.
New York eliminated the death penalty for the affairs brought by state prosecutors, such as the Manhattan district prosecutor. Federal prosecutors of the Ministry of Justice can always request death as a punishment.
Friedman Agnifilo’s declaration said that the decision to “assassinate” Mangione was “political and goes against the recommendation of local federal prosecutors, the law and the previous history”.
“This is a corrupt network of government dysfunction and a solution,” she said. “Luigi is caught in a rope game with high stakes between states and federal prosecutors, except that the trophy is the life of a young man.”
Officials of the law enforcement arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania in December, following a manhunt. They say he pulled and killed Thompson on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk when he arrived at a conference.
Mangione pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. While Mangione is in federal detention – hosted in the same prison as Sean “Diddy” “Combs and Sam Bankman Fried – The case of the Manhattan district prosecutor deposited faster. Last week, the prosecutors and defense lawyers clashed if they were to be authorized to have a laptop in prison while he is preparing for his defense.
A federal judge had already assigned a lawyer specializing in capital punishment, Avi Moskowitz, to the mangione defense team in February. A representative of the Mangione legal team did not immediately respond to the request for comments from Business Insider on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump prioritizes the death penalty in the federal criminal justice system. Bondi, in his first day of power, issued a memorandum raising a moratorium from the Biden era on executions.
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