Luigi Mangione’s lawyers are trying to avoid the death penalty and have two federal charges dropped in the case brought against him by the Justice Department, arguing that Attorney General Pam Bondi is biased because she worked for a lobbying firm representing UnitedHealth Group.
In court documents filed Friday, Mangione’s lawyers said Bondi has a “profound conflict of interest” because her former employer, Ballard Partners, a Washington-based lobbying firm founded by Trump donor Brian Ballard, counts UnitedHealth Group as one of its clients.
UnitedHealth Group is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, its health insurance division. Bondi became a lobbyist with Ballard Partners in 2019, after her term as Florida attorney general ended. She officially left the company upon her appointment as Attorney General earlier this year.
While it is unclear whether Bondi worked directly for UnitedHealth Group as a lobbyist, Mangione’s attorneys are seeking to investigate the attorney general’s ties to Ballard and his relationship with UnitedHealth Group, including Bondi’s compensation with the company and the directions she gave Justice Department staff in the Mangione case.
Mangione’s lawyers argue that this alleged conflict of interest, along with comments Bondi made about Mangione that his lawyers described as overtly political, It should encourage the court to rule out the possibility of imposing the death penalty, along with removing two federal charges and eliminating some evidence from the case.
A hearing is scheduled for January 9 in the US Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. The Justice Department and Ballard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mangione, 27, is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4, 2024. After a five-day manhunt, Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Law enforcement says they found bullets and a notebook attacking the insurance industry on Mangione when he was arrested.
When Bondi took office, the Justice Department announced that it would seek the death penalty for Mangione, calling the murder “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
“After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we implement President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crimes and make America safe again,” Bondi said in a statement. statement at that time.
A few weeks later, Margaret Garnett, the federal judge overseeing the case, warned Bundy and other Justice Department officials against making public comments about the case, which could bias future jurors.
In the lawsuit filed Friday, Mangione’s lawyers said Bondi’s comments and demand for the death penalty show she is acting “on the basis of policy, not merit.”
“Any criminal defendant, let alone someone the government is trying to kill, is subject to a criminal process untainted by the financial interests of prosecutors,” the lawyers wrote.
Mangione is represented by a husband-and-wife team of attorneys, Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Mark Agnifilo.
In court filings in November, federal prosecutors He said that the federal case should proceed as usual, noting that “pretrial publicity, even when extensive, is not in itself a constitutional defect.”
“What Defendant recast as a constitutional crisis is merely a restatement of the arguments,” prosecutors wrote. “Nothing warrants dismissal of the indictment or categorical denial of the sentence approved by Congress.”
The filing of the case in court comes after a weeks-long pre-trial hearing for the murder charges Mangione faces. After managing to have two major state charges dropped from the case, for first-degree murder and second-degree murder, his attorneys are now trying to remove certain evidence they say was illegally collected from the case. The ruling is expected at the pre-trial hearing, where the judge will decide what evidence remains in the case, in May.