On Friday, attorneys representing Luigi Mangione intensified their efforts to dismiss the death penalty from his case. They contend that Attorney General Pam Bondi has a significant financial conflict of interest that should disqualify her from the proceedings.
Details obtained by Fox News Digital reveal that the defense believes Bondi’s push for the death penalty after Mangione’s arrest was inappropriate. This stance is due to her previous role as a partner at Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm which represented UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of the deceased CEO, Brian Thompson.
The defense team argues that Bondi continues to benefit financially from Ballard’s profit-sharing plan, suggesting she should have stepped away from making any decisions related to the case.
“By failing to recuse herself, she has clearly infringed on Mr. Mangione’s due process rights, presenting yet another rationale for dismissing the Notice of Intent,” the legal filing states. A hearing is slated for January 9.
Pictured in a split image are Attorney General Pam Bondi and Luigi Mangione. Mangione’s legal team claims in their filing that Bondi should have withdrawn from making decisions regarding the death penalty in this federal case. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Curtis Means for Daily Mail via Pool)
In April, Bondi declared that she was assigning Manhattan federal prosecutors to pursue the death penalty. She made this announcement before Mangione’s formal indictment, labeling the incident as a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” justifying her call for capital punishment.
“The Attorney General personally directed line prosecutors to seek the death penalty in a public press release delivered via social media and then appeared on national television to claim that, based on her own experience as a capital crimes prosecutor, Mr. Mangione deserved to be executed,” the defense wrote in the Friday filing.
“This is a bell that can never be unrung,” the defense said.
Mangione’s attorneys further argued that when Bondi left Ballard Partners to become attorney general in 2025, the first defendant she “personally selected” for capital punishment was the man accused of killing the CEO of her former client.
Luigi Mangione, charged with the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, appears in State Supreme Court in Manhattan during an evidence suppression hearing in his case on Dec. 12, 2025. Mangione is being represented by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, left. (William Farrington for New York Post via Pool)
Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024, outside a Manhattan hotel where the company was hosting an investor conference. The execution-style shooting was caught on camera and prosecutors allege that Mangione targeted Thompson due to financial and corporate grievances. Mangione fled the scene but was captured days later.
This is not the first time Mangione’s defense has sought to have the death penalty thrown out.
In October, attorneys argued prosecutors could not pursue the death penalty because the underlying stalking charge does not qualify as a violent crime.
Luigi Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, pictured, in December in New York City. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)
Mangione’s lawyers first moved in early 2025 to block the death penalty, arguing the decision was political and prejudicial — not the result of a neutral DOJ review — and later filed a more detailed April motion seeking to strike the death-eligible counts, accusing Bondi of prejudging guilt through public statements, before centering the argument on an alleged financial conflict.
He is being represented by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a high-profile New York defense attorney who is also a former Manhattan prosecutor and former CNN legal analyst.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
