It is unlikely but not out of the question that Luigi Mangione, who is suspected of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, will face federal charges, and it is “reasonable to be concerned” that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg “will misjudge this case to deal with”. ,” former prosecutors told Fox News Digital.
Mangione was arrested Monday morning after a five-day manhunt by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, when a McDonald’s patron recognized his face from wanted posters.
On Tuesday, Mangione refused to waive his right to an extradition hearing Pennsylvania courtand his attorney said he plans to file a habeas corpus writ challenging Mangione’s arrest. Bragg and Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks are working to bring the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate to New York.
“There is no clear hook for a federal murder prosecution,” James Trusty, who served as a prosecutor in Maryland for 27 years, told Fox News Digital, citing publicly available details of the case.
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CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione screams as officers restrain him as he arrives for his extradition hearing in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on December 10, 2024. (David Dee Delgado for Fox News Digital)
However, Trusty said evidence of possible federal charges could be found on Mangione’s laptop seized upon his arrest.
Although federal authorities can bring murder charges, Trusty said: “The kind of thing that could make it federal is if (the murder) is related to organized crime, drug trafficking or a hate crime, which has a narrower definition than just ‘I hate insurance companies,'” Trusty said.
Members of the Altoona Police Department wrote in a criminal complaint obtained by Fox News Digital that they found a “black 3D printed handgun and a black silencer.” Possession of such a “ghost gun” — a homemade weapon that has no serial number and is therefore untraceable — is a federal crime, former head of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and chief security officer for the Port Authority, John Ryan, told Fox NewsDigital.
This view shows the SCI Huntingdon State Correctional Facility in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on December 10, 2024. Luigi Mangione is being held at the detention center. (David Dee Delgado for Fox News Digital)
But a conviction on such a charge would amount to a much shorter sentence than a state-level murder charge, Trusty said, likely only a year behind bars.
“If there is such a thing as a ghost gun that becomes a separate, standalone federal case, you could do that as a matter of a ‘safety net’ to say, ‘We’re going to get something out of this (prosecution),” Trusty said . .
Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy wrote on Monday National Review article that he has doubts about Bragg’s prosecution of Mangione’s case.
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Luigi Mangione (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
“Can Alvin Bragg – the progressive prosecutor who seems to regard the streets of New York as if they stepped out of Howard Zinn’s revisionist American history book – be trusted to prosecute a radical left for carrying out a ‘direct action’ against a capitalist oppressor? ?” McCarthy wrote.
McCarthy, also a former prosecutor, wrote that he “wouldn’t be surprised if President Donald Trump’s Justice Department nominees and the State Department” took a hard look at the Travel Act, a longtime fallback in the prosecution of organized crime. ‘ to take the case out of Bragg’s hands.
A conviction on a federal charge also carries the possibility of a death sentence; In 2004, the death penalty was banned in New York.
The UnitedHealthcare CEO killing suspect Luigi Mangione is shown at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9, 2024. (Pennsylvania State Police)
But Trusty said this outcome was “highly unlikely.” Even if Mangione did not act alone, there would have to be some evidence that he was “part of an entity that commits crimes” for the Travel Act to apply.
“Think of the mafia, MS-13, Tren de Aragua,” Trusty said. “Even someone who assisted him in an active conspiratorial role does not create a federal hook.”
Mangione could have been charged with murder by federal authorities if Thompson had been killed on federal property, Trusty said, but that is not the case.
Trusty said it’s “fair” for McCarthy to question Bragg’s potential handling of Mangione’s case.
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“I think Bragg has shown a tendency toward politically oriented prosecutorial decisions,” he said. “Charging Daniel Penny 11 days after the event immediately was a bad sign that he was listening to political voices and not doing a thorough investigation to determine what the facts are and what a just outcome is.”
“To add to that, his principled prosecution of President Trump after he and the State Department walked away from a Michael Cohen-led case is another bad sign,” he said. “It is right to be concerned that he will mishandle this case, perhaps by allowing politics to be injected into the decision-making process rather than being a professional prosecutor.”
