Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of the December 4, 2024, killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan, has received donations totaling close to $300,000 for his legal defense.
Mangione faces charges of first-degree murder related to an act of terrorism, stalking, and various other state and federal offenses in New York and Pennsylvania. He is accused of fatally shooting Thompson, a married father of two from Minnesota.
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione’s primary defense lawyer, mentioned that Mangione is appreciative of the support received through the fund. The Legal Committee, responsible for establishing the fund, reported Agnifilo’s statement on Monday. According to Agnifilo, Mangione intends to use the donations to combat the unprecedented legal battles he is facing.
The fundraiser garnered more than $290,000 from more than 10,000 individual donations, according to a press release.
Luigi Mangione is escorted from an NYPD helicopter in New York City, NY, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. He is charged in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
Police found a manifesto on the suspect when he was arrested days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he traveled by bus from New York after the alleged killing.
“Luigi Mangione allegedly conducted the carefully premeditated and targeted execution of Brian Thompson to incite national debates,” James Dennehy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said in a statement after Mangione’s extradition to New York. “This alleged plot demonstrates a cavalier attitude towards humanity — deeming murder an appropriate recourse to satiate personal grievances.”
The 26-year-old Mangione is originally from Maryland and has recently lived in California and Hawaii. He graduated valedictorian from the Gilman School, a private, all-boys high school in Baltimore, in 2016. Mangione went on to receive his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020.
