Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, faces a federal charge in addition to state charges in New York and Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York filed charges against the 26-year-old on Thursday, including murder by firearm, two counts of stalking and a firearms offense.
Mangione's New York–Resident attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo questioned the constitutionality of the federal charges in a statement. “The federal government’s reported decision to pursue an already inflated first-degree murder and state terrorism case is highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns,” Friedman Agnifilo wrote. “We stand ready to fight these allegations in any court in which they are made.”
The federal criminal complaint includes details from the notebook that police said they found on Mangione when he was arrested. According to the complaint, the notebook contained handwritten pages that “express hostility toward the health insurance industry and particularly wealthy executives,” as well as an Oct. 22 entry that describes an “investor conference” as a “real windfall.”
Mangione was indicted Tuesday by a New York grand jury on 11 counts, including three counts of murder, two of which call the attack an act of terrorism. He waived extradition at a hearing in Pennsylvania on Thursday and was subsequently returned to New York, where he is accused of killing Thompson in a targeted attack on December 4.
Mangione is also charged with two felonies and three misdemeanors in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested after a days-long manhunt.
His attorney in Pennsylvania, Thomas Dickey, said Mangione will plead not guilty to all charges in the state.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
