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Federal prosecutors have rejected “meritless” arguments from accused assassin Luigi Mangione’s legal team claiming Attorney General Pam Bondi has a conflict of interest and should have recused herself due to prior ties to a lobbying firm, ahead of a key hearing in his federal case.
The defense, in previous filings, has accused Bondi of “prejudice” against the defendant and claimed that her former position as a partner at Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with ties to the company of Mangione’s alleged target, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, should lead to her recusal.
“When Ms. Bondi left Ballard Partners to become the Attorney General in 2025, the very first defendant she personally selected to be executed was the man accused of killing the CEO of her former client,” defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote in a December filing.
POLICE SERGEANT DENIES HEARING LUIGI MANGIONE MOTHER’S ALLEGED DAMNING STATEMENT ABOUT CEO KILLING
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court for a suppression hearing as both sides prepare to wrap up arguments on Dec. 18, 2025. (Curtis Means for Daily Mail via Pool)
Prosecutors, however, called her claims “incomplete and misleading.”
Bondi no longer works there, they wrote, is not being paid by the firm or its clients and was not influenced by any “corporate interests” when the DOJ decided to seek the death penalty against Mangione if he is convicted.
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A member of the NYPD Crime Scene Unit takes a picture of a shell casing found at the scene where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in Midtown Manhattan in New York City on Dec. 4, 2024. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
Mangione is due in federal court Friday for a status conference expected to touch on a range of other issues, too.
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Although his lawyers have dropped their motion to suppress statements he made to police before and after his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, the defense is still hoping to suppress damning evidence recovered from Mangione’s backpack without a search warrant.
Federal prosecutors have countered that the suspected murder weapon and allegedly incriminating journals inside would have inevitably been discovered later — even if Altoona police hadn’t searched it at the scene.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson pictured in an undated portrait provided by UnitedHealth. The executive was shot from behind and killed on his way to an investor conference in New York City in what prosecutors have described as a politically motivated assassination. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)
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The defense has asked the judge to allow a future evidentiary hearing on the dispute, which the DOJ maintains is unneeded.
Legal experts have said police do not typically need one when they search a bag as part of the arrest process.
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Other pending defense motions include attempts to drop two of the four federal charges against Mangione, including the most serious, murder through use of a firearm.
Earlier this week, federal public defender Paresh Patel joined Mangione’s legal team as a special counsel for the Friday hearing. Patel is a Maryland-based appellate attorney.
Luigi Mangione pictured in a Pennsylvania booking photo. (Pennsylvania Department of Corrections)
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Surveillance video shows a man approach the 50-year-old Thompson from behind and gun him down outside a Manhattan hotel that was supposed to host a shareholder conference later that morning.
The Minnesota resident was a married father of two.