While public officials condemned the killing of the insurance executive, Luigi Mangione has been praised by the public and has received $500,000 so far in donations for his legal fees.
While public officials condemned the killing of the insurance executive, Luigi Mangione has been praised by the public and has received $500,000 so far in donations for his legal fees.
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By Jack Queen
Updated February 22, 2025 — 2.36pmfirst published at 8.50am
New York: Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally gunning down health insurance executive Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street in December, arrived in court in New York on Friday afternoon (New York time) with dozens of people gathered outside the courthouse to support the 26-year-old.
Popular support for Mangione has seen a flood of donations to his legal cause, while the insurance company’s shares have fallen amid reports of a Justice Department probe into its Medicare billing practices.
A lawyer for Mangione told a judge on Friday that her client was illegally searched during his arrest and she would seek to exclude that evidence from his trial on state murder and terrorism charges.
Lawyer Karen Agnifilo said during a hearing in Manhattan State Court that there were “serious search and seizure issues” with Mangione’s December arrest in Pennsylvania, though she did not elaborate.
“There might be evidence that is suppressed in this case,” Agnifilo said.
Police officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, found Mangione with a 9-millimetre pistol and silencer, clothing that matched the apparel worn by Thompson’s shooter in surveillance footage, and a notebook describing an intent to “wack” an insurance company chief executive, according to a court filing.
Thompson, the former chief executive of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance unit UnitedHealthcare, was shot dead on December 4 outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel, where the company was gathering for an investor conference.
Mangione appeared in court wearing a green cable knit sweater over a white shirt. He was brought into the courtroom in leg and arm shackles and wearing a bulletproof vest.
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Mangione pleaded not guilty on December 23 to an 11-count indictment charging him with murder as an act of terrorism and weapons offences. If convicted, he could face life in prison without parole. He is now jailed in a federal lockup in Brooklyn.
Friday’s hearing was brief and largely concerned prosecutors’ progress in handing over evidence to Mangione’s legal team.
The brazen killing of Thompson and ensuing five-day manhunt captivated Americans. While public officials condemned the killing, some Americans who decry steep healthcare costs and insurers’ power to refuse to pay for some treatments have feted Mangione as a folk hero.
Mangione’s supporters gathered outside the courthouse on Friday and behind police barricades in the hall outside the courtroom. He also faces a four-count federal criminal complaint charging him with stalking and killing Thompson.
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Supporters have flooded Mangione with letters in jail in Brooklyn, New York. Mangione has received gifts and over $US500,000 ($780,000) for his defence fund, the New York Times reports. His legal team has launched a website featuring a personal message from Mangione and details on how to reach him.
Agnifilo said prosecutors overseeing that case are weighing whether to seek the death penalty, which she said was complicated by the slow pace of discovery in the state case.
Mangione has not yet entered a plea in the federal case.
Avraham Moskowitz, a lawyer with experience in death penalty cases, joined Mangione’s defence team this month.
In a related development, the US Justice Department has been investigating UnitedHealth Group’s Medicare billing practices, a person familiar with the matter said. The company’s stock fell sharply.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the civil fraud investigation into whether the insurance giant’s practices related to patient diagnoses force higher payments from the government’s Medicare Advantage program.
Shares of UnitedHealth fell 7.2 per cent in New York. Humana Inc., which has a large Medicare business, dropped 5.7 per cent.
The DOJ declined to comment on the news. UnitedHealth pushed back against the report.
“We are not aware of the ‘launch’ of any ‘new’ activity,” the insurer said in an emailed statement. “Any suggestion that our practices are fraudulent is outrageous and false.”
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has been conducting a broad antitrust investigation of UnitedHealth’s practices that started under the Biden administration. That probe emerged out of concerns about UnitedHealth’s acquisitions of health-care providers and data companies, Bloomberg reported at the time.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Medicare billing inquiries are related to the antitrust investigation.
Reuters, Bloomberg
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