Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, has added a prominent defense lawyer to his legal team as Manhattan prosecutors work to return him from Pennsylvania to face a murder charge.
Mangione will be represented by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who was a high-ranking deputy in the Manhattan district attorney’s office for years before entering private practice. Friedman Agnifilo’s law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, confirmed in a statement late Friday that she had been retained to represent Mangione. The firm said she will not be commenting on the case at this time.
According to her firm’s website, “A public servant for nearly three decades, Karen Friedman Agnifilo left the government as the Chief Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, a role she held from 2014 through 2021.”
Mangione was arrested Monday after a customer at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, saw him eating breakfast and noticed a resemblance to the person being sought by police in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
Police say Mangione was found with a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson was arriving for his company’s annual investor conference.
The New York Police Department told CBS News that there are no indications that Mangione was a UnitedHealthcare customer.
Mangione, 26, remained jailed without bail Saturday in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with gun and forgery offenses. Altoona is about 230 miles west of New York City.
Mangione’s lawyer there, Thomas Dickey, has cautioned against prejudging the case and said that his client would contest his extradition to New York.
But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday that there were indications Mangione may now give up on that fight.
“We going to continue to press forward on parallel paths, and we’ll be ready whether he is going to waive extradition or whether he is going to contest extradition,” Bragg said at an unrelated press conference in Times Square.
Hours after Mangione’s arrest on Monday, Bragg’s office filed paperwork charging him with five counts, including intentional murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she’s prepared to ask her Pennsylvania counterpart, Gov. Josh Shapiro, to intervene and issue a governor’s warrant requiring Mangione’s extradition if he does not agree to be moved voluntarily.
Mangione’s new lawyer has made frequent TV appearances, including as a CNN legal analyst, co-hosts a weekly podcast and is the legal adviser for “Law & Order.”
Her husband and law partner Mark Agnifilo is representing Sean “Diddy” Combs in the hip-hop mogul’s Manhattan federal sex trafficking case.
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