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Luigi Mangione’s lawyers contend Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision to seek the death penalty against him in the killing in New York City of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was tainted by her prior work as a lobbyist at a firm that represented the insurer’s parent company.
Bondi was a partner at Ballard Partners before leading the Justice Department’s charge to turn Mangione’s federal prosecution into a capital case, creating a “profound conflict of interest” that violated his due process rights, his lawyers wrote in a court filing late Friday. They want prosecutors barred from seeking the death penalty and some charges thrown out.
A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9.
Former Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Gulluzzo says Luigi Mangione’s federal charges are ‘somewhat unusual’ as the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is already facing state charges. Gulluzzo explains the federal case could lead to the death penalty, but it could be a year-long process.
By involving herself in the death penalty decision and making public statements suggesting that Mangione deserves execution, Bondi broke a vow she made before taking office in February that she would follow ethical regulations and bow out of matters pertaining to Ballard clients for a year, Mangione’s lawyers said.
They argued Bondi has continued to profit from her work for Ballard — and, indirectly, from its work for UnitedHealth Group — through a profit-sharing arrangement with the lobbying firm and a defined contribution plan it administers.
The “very person” empowered to seek Mangione’s death “has a financial stake in the case she is prosecuting,” his lawyers wrote. Her conflict of interest “should have caused her to recuse herself from making any decisions on this case,” they added.
Messages seeking comment were left for the Justice Department and Ballard Partners.
Bondi announced in April that she was directing Manhattan federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, declaring even before Mangione was formally indicted that capital punishment was warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination.”
Thompson, 50, was killed Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind.
Mangione, 27, was arrested five days later. He has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges, with state charges carrying the possibility of life in prison. Neither trial has been scheduled.
Friday’s filing put the focus back on Mangione’s federal case a day after a marathon pretrial hearing ended in his fight to bar prosecutors in his state case from using certain evidence found during his arrest, such as a gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson. A ruling isn’t expected until May.
Mangione’s defense team zeroed in on Bondi’s past lobbying work as they seek to convince U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett to rule out capital punishment, throw out some charges and exclude the same evidence they want suppressed from the state case.
In a September court filing, Mangione’s lawyers argued that Bondi’s announcement that she was ordering prosecutors to seek the death penalty — which she followed with Instagram posts and a TV appearance — showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” They also said her remarks tainted the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later.
Bondi’s statements and other official actions — including a highly choreographed perp walk that saw Mangione led up a Manhattan pier by armed officers, and the Trump administration’s flouting of established death penalty procedures — “have violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and have fatally prejudiced this death penalty case,” his lawyers said.
In a court filing last month, federal prosecutors argued that “pretrial publicity, even when intense, is not itself a constitutional defect.”
Rather than dismissing the case outright or barring the government from seeking the death penalty, prosecutors argued, the defense’s concerns can best be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case and ensuring Mangione’s rights are respected at trial.
“What the defendant recasts as a constitutional crisis is merely a repackaging of arguments” rejected in previous cases, prosecutors said. “None warrants dismissal of the indictment or categorical preclusion of a congressionally authorized punishment.”
Mangione’s lawyers said they want to investigate Bondi’s ties to Ballard and the firm’s relationship with UnitedHealth Group, and will ask for various materials, including details of Bondi’s compensation from the firm, any direction she’s given Justice Department employees regarding the case or UnitedHealthcare and sworn testimony from “all individuals with personal knowledge of the relevant matters.”
