JUST IN: Luigi Mangione Expected to Plead Guilty in Federal Case — Could Put State Prosecution in Doubt

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Luigi Mangione is expected to plead guilty on Friday to stalking resulting in the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday.

Mangione, 28, is currently in a federal prison in Brooklyn, facing multiple federal and state charges related to the murder of Thompson, who was shot and killed early in the morning on Dec. 4, 2024, outside of the New York Hilton Midtown where his company was holding an investor conference. Police have said they believe this was a premeditated and targeted attack.

Within days of the murder, Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. In his possession was a ghost gun, a suppressor, and a manifesto that railed against the health insurance industry.

After the judge dismissed the most serious of the federal charges against Mangione, the death penalty was off the table, but he is still facing a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

On Wednesday, TMZ reported that Mangione’s attorneys were engaged in “serious negotiations” with federal prosecutors to plead guilty in what would likely be an “open plea,” where the defendant pleads guilty but the exact terms of the sentence are not negotiated and instead left to the judge to decide after an evidentiary hearing complete with testimony.

The appeal for Mangione — besides likely helping him avoid life in prison — is that his legal team would be able to present evidence of mitigating factors, including how his opinions on America’s health care system affected his mental state. The case has attracted a high level of media attention and has already sparked multiple documentaries and a massive fan base for Mangione; he would essentially be given a megaphone for his views, should he choose to testify.

Two sources “with knowledge of the matter” told The New York Times that Mangione was expected to enter a guilty plea on Friday to the federal charge for stalking resulting in Thompson’s death. However, the sources added, the ongoing talks were “sensitive” and “could fall apart before or even during a scheduled hearing in federal court on Friday,” the Times reported.

Even if a deal is reached, Mangione would retain the right to change his mind at any point before the plea is entered, “even during the court hearing itself,” the Times noted.

Mangione’s attorneys did not reply to a request from the Times for comment. Jamie McDonald, who heads the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, was asked about the reports of a plea deal on Wednesday and would only confirm that there was in fact a hearing in the case scheduled for Friday, saying “That’s all we can say at this time.”

The potential for a plea in the federal case could have seismic impacts on the state case as well, the Times reported. After Mangione was arrested and charged with both state and federal crimes, the two sets of prosecutors “have seemingly been jockeying to try Mr. Mangione first.”

The Fifth Amendment’s prohibition against “double jeopardy” means that you cannot be tried more than once for the same offense, even if it is in different courts, and a plea deal with the feds could block New York from prosecuting Mangione for the same offenses.

However, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has made moves suggesting it would still fight to pursue the state-level prosecution against Mangione.

Legal experts have noted the state charge of murder is a “different harm” than the stalking charge in the federal case, the Times reported.

Last month, a prosecutor in Bragg’s office, Joel Seidemann, sent a letter to the state judge assigned to Mangione’s case that indicated they would object to any federal guilty plea that “would operate to defeat a just outcome in the state prosecution.” Seidemann added that the Manhattan DA would be urging the federal judge to “consider that fact [of the state’s objection] in deciding whether to accept that plea,” and had advised Mangione’s lawyers and the federal prosecutors accordingly.

“Any guilty pleas in these matters must account for the seriousness of defendant’s offenses, the loss of an innocent life, the impact of those crimes on the victim’s family,” wrote Seidemann.

Mangione’s defense team has “argued from almost the moment he was charged by state and federal authorities in December 2024 that the dual prosecutions violated his rights,” the Times reported, including a motion that argued the state and federal cases “relate to identical facts” and were “so constitutionally fraught that we are hard-pressed to find precedent for such an unprecedented situation.” The two prosecutions, the attorneys argued, represented the state and feds “trying to get two bites at the apple to convict Mr. Mangione.”

Currently, Mangione’s state trial is scheduled to start in September and the federal matter in January.

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