Health insurance industry leaders leaned on the US Department of Justice to prosecute accused UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione — arguing a federal case against the twisted folk hero would act as a deterrent for possible copycat vigilante killers, sources said Friday.
The feds swooped in with a four-count complaint against Mangione in the cold-blooded killing of Brian Thompson Thursday — scuttling Manhattan prosecutors’ hope of getting the first bite at the 26-year-old Ivy Leaguer in the courtroom.
Mangione instead faced a judge in Manhattan federal court following his dramatic arrival in the Big Apple — blindsiding his defense attorneys.
Sources told The Post that the federal charges came amid pressure from health insurance industry leaders to make an example out of Mangione, though it was unclear which specific entities petitioned the DOJ.
A federal prosecution could be inherently harsher than the parallel state case leveled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for one simple reason: only the feds can put the death penalty on the table.
“They have the ultimate leverage,” veteran defense attorney Mark Bederow told The Post.
How the feds with the Southern District of New York made their decision to charge and haul Mangione to court before Bragg remained unclear, although one source told The Post that it came from the top of the DOJ in Washington, DC.
Regardless, the federal charges shocked Mangione’s defense team, who learned about them from reading The Post Wednesday evening.
When Mangione’s attorney Marc Agnifilo arrived at Manhattan federal court for the hearing Thursday, he did so minutes after reporters were able to read the freshly unsealed complaint.
“Please, let me take a look at the complaint first,” he pleaded to a group of reporters flinging questions.
Mangione’s lead attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who is Marc Agnifilo’s wife, was prepared that day to go to the state Manhattan Supreme Court case after the accused killer’s extradition from Pennsylvania.
Instead, she ended up sitting alongside Mangione for his presentment in federal court, where she insinuated the Manhattan DA’s office didn’t know about the feds’ move.
A source in Bragg’s office disputed Agnifilo’s insinuation, and other insiders said the feds were involved in the case very early.
The two cases are expected to run parallel. Acting Manhattan US Attorney Edward Y. Kim said in a statement Thursday that Bragg’s case is “expected to proceed to trial before the federal case.”
But whether local Manhattan prosecutors will indeed present their case first remains unclear.
Bederow said the feds’ timing shows they “wanted to move quickly” and are likely trying to jump the line ahead of Bragg.
“They literally filed a complaint before the DA was even able to take him to state court,” he said.
“They have given the impression that they jumped the DA and kind of elbowed them out of the way. Anyone watching this realizes that the feds are moving in here to take over.”
Reps for the DA’s office and the state court system said late Friday that Mangione’s arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court was now expected Monday, if he is brought to court from the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The state charges he faces from Bragg’s office include an unusual rap of murder as an act of terrorism, one of 11 counts that a grand jury handed down in a sweeping indictment.
The charge — which carries the maximum penalty of life without parole — could open the door to politicizing the slaying of Thompson, defense attorney Ron Kuby previously told The Post.
Mangione allegedly was found with a handwritten manifesto-type document when Pennsylvania cops arrested him at a McDonald’s in Altoona five days after the shocking slaying.
The notebook raged against the health insurance industry and detailed his plan to “wack” a CEO at the conference Thompson planned to attend Dec. 4, calling it a “true windfall” for his dastardly aims, according to the complaint.
During the three months Mangione allegedly plotted his attack, he zeroed in on UnitedHealthcare, writing the insurance behemoth that Thompson led “checks every box,” the complaint states.
“The target is insurance,” he allegedly wrote.
“The message” would become “self evident,” he wrote in the notebook, signaling he foresaw the shooting would be viewed as an attack on the insurance industry, according to court documents.
The anti-health insurance industry stance earned Mangione a legion of fans who shared sick memes and even attended his Pennsylvania extradition hearing wearing “Luigi” hats.
The pressure by the insurance industry for the feds to deter other killers unfolded against this backdrop — and could pay off.
Legal experts said prosecuting the case against Mangione in federal court carries advantages beyond the potential death penalty.
The feds have a “cleaner” case that doesn’t require jurors to decide on the unusual terror enhancement that Bragg pursued, Bederow contended.
As Karen Agnifilo argued, the federal case’s stalking counts appear to contradict the Manhattan terror charge.
“The theory of the murder charge of the Manhattan DA case is terrorism and intimidating a group of people,” she said during Mangione’s arraignment. “This is stalking an individual.”
And a jury pool in the Southern District wouldn’t just be pulled from Manhattanites, but also prospective jurors in Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties.
“If there are concerns about this guy being kind of a martyr or a folk hero to some kind of crazy political cause, in federal court… it’s a much more favorable, I would say, jury pool for the prosecution,” Bederow said.
The attorney also noted that come Jan. 20, when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, there may be more friction between the DOJ and the DA’s office.
Trump was successfully prosecuted by Bragg’s office in the infamous porn star hush money case and found guilty of 34 felony counts — a result that rankled the president-elect.
“What do you think the Trump Justice Department will think of Alvin Bragg’s DA office?” he said. “They will definitely flex their muscles and take the case and try to make sure it gets handled in federal court.”
“We will have a Justice Department helmed by someone who absolutely despises the Manhattan DA,” he added.
Representatives for UnitedHealthcare didn’t respond to The Post’s query about whether the company was involved in the reputed pressure campaign.
DOJ officials in Washington and New York declined to comment.
State court officials are ready to hold Mangione’s arraignment, said spokesman Al Baker in a statement dripping with shade Friday.
“Should the defendant be produced at 100 Centre Street on Monday, December 23, the Court stands ready to arraign the defendant,” he said.
— Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Kyle Schnitzer
