Fox News Legal Contributor Points to Paul Manafort Double Jeopardy Case as Precedent for Mangione’s Team

Luigi Mangione’s legal team “has a lot of merit” if they’re after a double jeopardy defense, said Fox News legal contributor Donna Rotunno on Friday.

Mangione, who pleaded guilty Friday to charges of federal stalking, has a team of “wonderful lawyers,” Rotunno said while questioning why that same team continues to “make statements like this in regards to clients that have clients that have now pled guilty to crimes and who are not victims.”

Despite that, Mangione’s lawyers may be looking to former Trump campaign operative Paul Manafort’s double jeopardy case as a blueprint for their own client.

“I think the Paul Manafort case is a perfect example here, and I think this is why they rushed into federal court prior to the September 8 state trial date,” Rotunno said.

She continued, “I think they are going to make this motion. We know they filed one today. I do think they have a lot of merit here and the odds of this state case going forward are probably very slim.”

Even though the federal stalking charges and state murder charges are “different,” they are “based fundamentally on the same set of circumstances and the same code of conduct,” Rotunno continued.

As she put it:

I’m not so sure that there is enough of a difference here to say that they are different enough to move forward under New York law. Now, if the judge allows them to move forward and they have a trial this will be a major subject of appeal and then a higher court will make the decision. They will argue, of course, that this murder is different than the stalking even though the stalking resulted in murder, and the defense will argue it’s the same conduct and he should not have been prosecuted twice. So we’ll see what the court does.

Many up and down the political spectrum were surprised by comments made by Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, made Friday. CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz’s said he was “really struck” by “excuses” Agnifilo offered.

“As Luigi explained in court today, he endured years of severe, debilitating pain following a broken back while struggling to navigate our health care and health insurance systems. Like the thousands of people who have reached out since this tragedy to share their own experiences, he believed that the system had failed him and destroyed his life,” Agnifilo said.

Fox News’ Jonathan Turley also said Agnifilo “went too far.”

Watch the above via Fox News.

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