Could Ivy League Murder Suspect Luigi Mangione Face Federal Charges?

It’s unlikely but not out of the question that Luigi Mangione, suspected of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, will face federal charges, and it’s “concerned of” that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg “would handle the case improperly,” former prosecutors told Fox News Digital.

Mangione was arrested by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning after a five-day manhunt after a McDonald’s patron recognized his face from wanted posters.

On Tuesday, Mangyon refused to waive his right to an extradition hearing in a court. Court of Pennsylvaniaand his lawyer said he plans to file a writ of habeas corpus challenging Mangion’s arrest. Bragg and Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks are working to get the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate to New York.

“There is no obvious hook for one. Federal Homicide ProsecutionJames Trusty, who worked as a prosecutor in Maryland for 27 years, told Fox News Digital, based on publicly available details of the case.

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However, the trustee said, evidence of possible federal charges could be found on Mangion’s laptop that was seized after his arrest.

Although federal authorities can handle murder charges, Trustee said that “the kinds of things that could make it federal are if [the murder] The trustee said it was in conjunction with organized crime, drug trafficking or hate crime, defined more narrowly than just ‘I hate insurance companies’.

Members of the Altoona Police Department wrote in a criminal complaint obtained by Fox News Digital that they found a “black 3D printed pistol and a black silencer.” John Ryan, former head of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and chief security officer of the Port Authority, told Fox News Digital that possessing such a “ghost gun” — a home-brewed weapon that is unserialized and therefore untraceable — is a federal crime. is

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But such a charge would carry a much lesser sentence than a state-level manslaughter charge, the trustee said, possibly only a year behind bars.

“If there’s something like a ghost gun that becomes a separate standalone federal case, you can say that as a ‘safety net’ case, ‘We’re going to get something out of this.’ [prosecution]” said the trustee.

Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy wrote Monday National Review Article that he is suspicious of Bragg prosecuting Mangione.

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“Is Alvin Bragg — a paragon of progressive prosecutors who treats the streets of New York like they’re straight out of Howard Zinn’s revisionist American history textbook — grounded in taking ‘direct action’ against a capitalist oppressor?” Can the radical left be trusted to prosecute?” McCarthy wrote.

McCarthy, also a former prosecutor, wrote that this “would not be surprising. [him] If President-elect Donald Trump’s Justice Department nominees and State Department “[take] A hard look at the Travel Act, an old standby in organized crime operations” to take the case out of Bragg’s hands.

The federal charge carries the possibility of the death penalty. The death penalty was outlawed in New York in 2004.

But the trustee said that outcome was “highly unlikely.” Even if Mangione did not act alone, there would need to be some evidence that he was “part of a criminal enterprise” for the Travel Act to apply.

“Think the Mafia, MS-13, Tren de Aragua,” Trusty said. “Even someone who assisted him in an active conspiratorial role does not make the federal hook.”

If Thompson had been killed on federal property, Mangione could have been charged with murder by federal authorities, but that is not the case, the trustee said.

The trustee said it was “fair” that McCarthy had doubts about Bragg’s handling of Mangione’s case.

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“I think Bragg has shown a squeamish attitude towards decisions by politically minded prosecutors,” he said. “Charging Daniel Penney 11 days after the event was a bad sign that he was listening to political voices and not conducting a thorough investigation to determine what the facts were and what a fair outcome was.”

“To add to that, his unconscionable prosecution of President Trump and his aftermath [State Department walked away from a Michael Cohen-led case] Another bad sign,” he said. “It’s reasonable to be concerned that they’re going to mishandle this case, perhaps by allowing politics to enter the decision-making process rather than being a professional prosecutor. “