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Luigi Mangione’s defense team is calling for an end to political violence across the nation, making it clear that their client is not associated with those implicated in a string of similar crimes.
“As we have reiterated in numerous public court documents, Mr. Mangione does not endorse violent behavior and does not support any current or future acts of political violence,” stated his lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Attempts to link him to unrelated incidents or suggest that he advocates these actions are both reckless and unjust,” she added.
Friedman Agnifilo’s statement was in response to inquiries from Fox News Digital, following a recent incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C., over the weekend.
During the event, a 31-year-old California educator named Cole Allen was taken into custody after allegedly shooting a U.S. Secret Service agent during an unsuccessful attempt to enter the gathering, which was attended by prominent figures including President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, the first lady, cabinet officials, and influential media personalities.
Luigi Mangione made an appearance in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan on December 12, 2025, for a hearing on evidence suppression related to the murder case involving UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Photo by Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg)
Federal prosecutors have accused Allen of attempting to assassinate the president and filed federal firearms charges, alleging he wrote a “manifesto” sent to relatives and his former employer.
“Cole Allen traveled across the country with deadly weapons and a plan to assassinate the President of the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia. “The swift and courageous response of the Secret Service officers prevented unimaginable tragedy. There is no room in this city for political violence.”
Earlier this month, a Texas man named Daniel Moreno-Gama was accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI founder Sam Altman’s California home. The 20-year-old suspect allegedly referenced “Luigi’ing some tech CEOs,” The Wall Street Journal reported previously.
A photo of Cole Allen in a graduation gown and cap from 2025. (Cole Allen/LinkedIn)
The case prompted San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to warn that “incendiary rhetoric” could have motivated the crime.
Another arson attack suspect, Chamel Abdulkarim, allegedly invoked Mangione on video while prosecutors allege he set a warehouse on fire in Ontario, Calif..
“Luigi popped that motherf—er,” he said, according to a federal criminal complaint, adding “a lot of people are going to understand.”
Prosecutors have alleged that the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, led to a broad social impact and may have inspired others to violence — by design.
In an Aug. 27, 2025, filing in federal court, they argued that “the context and execution of [Thompson’s] murder strongly suggest that the defendant intended to influence or provoke broader reactions beyond the immediate killing.”
“Simply put, the defendant hoped to normalize the use of violence to achieve ideological or political objectives,” prosecutors wrote.
Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is shown in an undated portrait provided by UnitedHealth. He was shot and killed on his way to an investor conference in New York City in what prosecutors described as a politically motivated assassination. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)
Mangione, who is accused of stalking Thompson from Minnesota to New York before shooting him in the back, allegedly wrote messages on shell casings used in Thompson’s shooting, a detail prosecutors alleged in the Aug. 27 filing was specifically intended to encourage media coverage. He also allegedly wrote journals describing the motivations behind the attack.
In September 2025, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, 31, was assassinated during a speaking event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Authorities have charged a 22-year-old named Tyler Robinson, who allegedly engraved messages into shell casings.
Tyler Robinson appears during a hearing in Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, on Dec. 11, 2025. He is accused of the murder of Charlie Kirk. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune)
That same month, a gunman opened fire on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Dallas, Texas. Joshua Jahn, 29, killed a detainee, injured two others and fatally shot himself. Pictures show authorities recovered rounds from the scene, at least one inscribed with the phrase, “ANTI-ICE.”
Robin Westman, a 23-year-old accused of shooting children through the windows of a Minneapolis Catholic church in August 2025, also posted videos online showing weapons and magazines covered in anti-Trump and anti-Christian messages.
Mangione’s lawyers have argued that Thompson’s death was not an act of “political violence” to begin with, writing that he was not a public servant, not a politician, and not engaged in politics.
Screenshots from a YouTube video posted by Robin M. Westman, 23, show the suspect police identified as the gunman in the Aug. 27, 2025, Minneapolis church school shooting. (Robin M. Westman for Fox News Digital)
“The Government has indelibly prejudiced Mr. Mangione by baselessly linking him to unrelated violent events, and left-wing extremist groups, despite there being no connection or affiliation,” his lawyers wrote in a Sept. 23 letter to the judge overseeing his federal case, Margaret Garnett.
They were responding to comments from top White House officials describing Mangione as “left wing” as part of a bid to have the potential death penalty taken off the table before trial.
“A recent, tragic, high-profile murder has only increased this prejudicial rhetoric. The attempts to connect Mr. Mangione with these incidents and paint him as a ‘left-wing’ violent extremist are false, prejudicial, and part of a greater political narrative that has no place in any criminal case, especially one where the death penalty is at stake.”
His lawyers subsequently won a ruling that removed the chance of capital punishment.
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