NEW YORK – The legal team representing Luigi Mangione is challenging Attorney General Pam Bondi’s pursuit of the death penalty in the case involving the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. They argue that Bondi’s previous role as a lobbyist at a firm linked to the insurer’s parent company has compromised her impartiality.

Before spearheading the decision to elevate Mangione’s federal case to a capital offense, Bondi was associated with Ballard Partners. Mangione’s attorneys claim this connection presents a “profound conflict of interest” that undermines his right to a fair process. They are seeking to have the death penalty option removed and certain charges dismissed, with a court hearing set for January 9.

Bondi’s involvement in the decision-making process regarding the death penalty, alongside her public comments in favor of execution, contradicts her initial pledge to adhere to ethical guidelines. This pledge included abstaining from any matters related to former clients of Ballard Partners for a year after assuming her role in February, Mangione’s legal representatives assert.

The lawyers further contend that Bondi continues to benefit financially from her previous association with Ballard Partners, and indirectly from their work with UnitedHealth Group, through a profit-sharing agreement and a retirement plan managed by the firm.

They emphasize that the individual with the authority to pursue the death penalty against Mangione has a financial interest in the case, which they argue should have necessitated her recusal from any involvement in the prosecution’s decisions.

Messages seeking comment were left for the Justice Department and Ballard Partners.

Bondi announced in April that she was directing Manhattan federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, declaring even before Mangione was formally indicted that capital punishment was warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

Thompson, 50, was killed Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, 27, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison. Neither trial has been scheduled.

Friday’s filing put the focus back on Mangione’s federal case a day after a marathon pretrial hearing ended in his fight to bar prosecutors in his state case from using certain evidence found during his arrest, such as a gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which he purportedly described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive. A ruling isn’t expected until May.

Mangione’s defense team, led by the husband-and-wife duo of Karen Friedman-Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo, zeroed in on Bondi’s past lobbying work as they seek to convince U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett to rule out capital punishment, throw out some charges and exclude the same evidence they want suppressed from the state case.

In a September court filing, Mangione’s lawyers argued that Bondi’s announcement that she was ordering prosecutors to seek the death penalty — which she followed with Instagram posts and a TV appearance — showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” They also said her remarks tainted the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later.

Bondi’s statements and other official actions — including a highly choreographed perp walk that saw Mangione led up a Manhattan pier by armed officers, and the Trump administration’s flouting of established death penalty procedures — “have violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and have fatally prejudiced this death penalty case,” his lawyers said.

In a court filing last month, federal prosecutors argued that “pretrial publicity, even when intense, is not itself a constitutional defect.”

Rather than dismissing the case outright or barring the government from seeking the death penalty, prosecutors argued, the defense’s concerns can best be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case and ensuring Mangione’s rights are respected at trial.

“What the defendant recasts as a constitutional crisis is merely a repackaging of arguments” rejected in previous cases, prosecutors said. “None warrants dismissal of the indictment or categorical preclusion of a congressionally authorized punishment.”

Mangione’s lawyers said they want to investigate Bondi’s ties to Ballard and the firm’s relationship with UnitedHealth Group and will ask for various materials, including details of Bondi’s compensation from the firm, any direction she’s given Justice Department employees regarding the case or UnitedHealthcare, and sworn testimony from “all individuals with personal knowledge of the relevant matters.”