NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for Luigi Mangione argue that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision to seek the death penalty against UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in his slaying was influenced by her previous work as a lobbyist for a firm representing the insurance company’s parent company.
Bundy, who was a partner at Ballard Partners before leading the Justice Department’s effort to convert Mangione’s federal prosecution into a death penalty case, created a “profound conflict of interest” and violated his due process rights, his attorneys wrote in court papers filed late Friday. They want to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty and dismiss some charges. A hearing is scheduled for January 9.
Mangione’s attorneys said Bundy’s involvement in the death penalty decision and her public statements suggesting Mangione should be executed violated a vow she made before taking office in February that she would abide by ethics and stay out of matters related to Ballard clients for a year.
They argued that Bundy continued to profit from her work for Ballard and indirectly from Ballard’s work for UnitedHealth Group through profit-sharing arrangements with lobbying firms and the defined-contribution plans it administered.
Mangione’s attorneys wrote that “the individual” with the power to murder Mangione “had a financial interest in the case she is prosecuting.” They added that her conflict of interest “should have resulted in her recusing herself from making any decision on the case”.
Messages seeking comment were left with the Justice Department and Ballard Partners.
Bundy announced in April that she was instructing federal prosecutors in Manhattan to seek the death penalty, declaring even before Mangione was formally charged that the “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America” deserved the death penalty.
Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, while heading to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor meeting. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police said the ammunition had “delay,” “deny” and “destroy” written on it, mimicking phrases used to describe how insurance companies avoid paying claims.
Mangione, 27, an Ivy League scion of a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles west of Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges. State charges could result in life in prison. Neither trial has yet been scheduled.
Friday’s filing refocuses attention on Mangione’s federal case. A marathon pretrial hearing concluded a day earlier in his efforts to prevent prosecutors in the state case from using certain evidence discovered during his arrest, such as a gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which he allegedly described his intention to “attack” a health insurance executive. A ruling is not expected until May.
Mangione’s defense team, led by husband-and-wife team Karen Friedman-Agnifillo and Mark Agnifillo, is focusing on Bundy’s past lobbying efforts as they try to persuade U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett to rule out the death penalty, dismiss some of the charges and exclude the same evidence they hope to suppress in the state case.
In a court filing in September, Mangione’s lawyers argued that Bundy’s announcement ordering prosecutors to seek the death penalty – which she later followed with Instagram posts and television appearances – showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” They also said her comments tainted the grand jury proceedings, leading to his indictment weeks later.
Bundy’s statement and other official actions — including Mangione’s choreographed criminal walk led by armed police officers and the Trump administration’s flouting of established death penalty procedures — “violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and fatally prejudiced this death penalty case,” his attorneys said.
In a court filing last month, federal prosecutors argued that “pretrial publicity, even if intense, is not itself a constitutional defect.”
Rather than dismiss the case outright or bar the government from seeking the death penalty, prosecutors believe it would be better to assuage defense concerns by carefully questioning future jurors about their knowledge of the case and ensuring Mangione’s rights are respected at trial.
“Defendants’ recasting of this as a constitutional crisis is nothing more than a repackaging of arguments rejected in previous cases,” prosecutors said. “There is no reason to dismiss the prosecution or expressly exclude the penalties authorized by Congress.”
Mangione’s lawyers said they want to investigate Bondi’s ties to Ballard and the company’s ties to UnitedHealth Group, and will request a variety of materials, including details of Bondi’s compensation from the company, any instructions she gave to Justice Department employees about the case or UnitedHealthcare, and sworn testimony from “all individuals with knowledge of the matters.”
