Accused killer Luigi Mangione was indicted on federal charges for allegedly gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the government announced Thursday – just days after feds revealed they’d seek the death penalty in the high-profile assassination.
The four-count indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court charged the 26-year-old with murder through the use of a firearm, two counts of stalking and firearms offenses for the Dec. 4 killing of the healthcare boss in the Big Apple.
Mangione, who is also facing state murder charges in Manhattan, will appear before Judge Margaret Garrett as soon as Friday to formally answer to the charges.
Mangione will now appear in front of a federal judge in the coming days to formally answer to the charges. via REUTERS
The latest indictment comes just days after US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the feds will urge a jury to take the rare step of ordering what would be the city’s first federal execution in 70 years.
“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson – an innocent man and father of two young children – was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said in an April 11 press release.
Luigi Mangione has been indicted on federal charges over his alleged assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. UnitedHealth Group“After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
Mangione’s legal team slammed the “lawless Justice Department” for wanting to “murder” the accused CEO killer for “political” reasons.
While New York state outlawed the death penalty in 2004, federal prosecutors can still execute defendants – if they convince a jury to unanimously sign off on a government-sanctioned killing.
Stay up to date on Luigi Mangione, charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO
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Mangione was indicted on four counts, including murder through use of a firearm and stalking. csuarezThe Ivy League-educated tech whiz is charged with the cold-blooded slaying of Thompson, 50, in separate cases brought by state and federal prosecutors. He faces life in prison if convicted in state court on an upgraded charge of murder as an act of terrorism.
Mangione is accused of traveling across states to execute the health insurance executive with a 3D-printed ghost gun equipped with a homemade silencer outside a Midtown Hilton, where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company was holding its annual investor conference.
Prosecutors said Mangione – a University of Pennsylvania graduate from a well-heeled Maryland family – plotted the attack for months and wrote in his notebook about plans to “wack” the head of a medical insurance company, alongside angry tirades against the US healthcare system.
The alleged assassin, who railed about the healthcare industry in his manifesto, was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania following a dramatic five-day manhunt.
Since his arrest, Mangione has garnered a cult-like following of supporters who have decried what they’ve called America’s corrupt healthcare system and donated more than $918,000 to a fundraising page managed by his defense team.
He has since pleaded not guilty to a slew of state and federal charges tied to the ruthless killing.
Mangione is being held without bail at a Brooklyn federal lockup.
