Attorney General Pam Bondi directs prosecutors to seek death penalty for Luigi Mangione
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(NEW YORK) — Attorney General Pam Bondi is directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione if he is convicted of the December murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, she announced in a statement Tuesday.
One of the federal charges against Mangione, murder through use of a firearm, makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
“Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said in a statement. “After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
Mangione is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan as the CEO headed to an investors conference on Dec. 4. He was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the murder.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges.
He hasn’t entered a plea to federal charges. He is due back in federal court on April 18.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Passenger captures the moment an United Airlines plane gets filled with smoke after engine issue and the following evacuation on slides at Houston airport, Feb. 2, 2025. (Ashlyn Sharp)
(HOUSTON) — Passengers on a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York were evacuated before takeoff on Sunday due to engine issues, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
No injuries were reported, according to the Houston Fire Department, which was assisting at the scene.
The FAA said takeoff was “safely aborted” due to a “reported engine issue.”
“Passengers deplaned on the runway and were bused to the terminal,” the FAA said in a statement.
United Airlines confirmed the incident, saying passengers evacuated the aircraft “via a combination of slides and stairs.”
In one video taken by a passenger, smoke could be seen coming out of the plane.
In another video, passengers were seen deplaning via the aircraft’s evacuation slide.
One passenger, Kelcie Davis, called it a “terrifying experience” in a post she shared on TikTok.
“Engine blew out right as our wheels were leaving the ground,” Davis said. “Plane lost control on the runway for a few seconds, but thank god our pilot was able to get the plane back under control. Only one slide was working for the entire plane to evacuate.”
ABC News’ Ayesha Ali and Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.
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(WASHINGTON) — Top white shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell will represent President Donald Trump as he appeals his criminal hush money conviction in New York, according to court filings Wednesday.
The new attorneys filed a notice of appeal Wednesday, signaling their intention to appeal Trump’s conviction to New York’s Appellate Division, First Department.
Among Trump’s new lawyers is firm co-chair Robert J. Giuffra.
“President Donald J. Trump’s appeal is important for the rule of law, New York’s reputation as a global business, financial and legal center, as well as for the presidency and all public officials,” Giuffra said in a statement. “The misuse of the criminal law by the Manhattan DA to target President Trump sets a dangerous precedent, and we look forward to the case being dismissed on appeal.”
The change in attorneys followed Trump’s naming of his former lead attorneys, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and John Sauer, to top roles in the Justice Department.
Blanche has been nominated for deputy attorney general, Sauer as solicitor general, and Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general.
Sauer led Trump’s successful appeals, including at the U.S. Supreme Court, that led to the dismissals of federal prosecutions in Trump’s Jan. 6 and classified documents cases.
Blanche and Bove led the defense team at Trump’s criminal trial in New York that ended in Trump’s conviction last May on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, sentenced Trump prior to his inauguration to an unconditional discharge, sparing Trump any prison time, fines or probation.
(WASHINGTON) — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday began laying off more than 6,000 new and newly promoted employees across the country, sources familiar with the planning told ABC News, as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to shrink the federal workforce that could have potential consequences for the current tax filing season.
The layoffs, impacting roughly 6%-7% of the agency’s 100,000-person workforce, began midday Thursday primarily outside the Washington, D.C., area, with thousands of employees facing layoffs at offices in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee, New York, and beyond, sources told ABC News.
As of Thursday morning, over 500 terminations were expected in Texas; over 600 in New York; over 400 in Georgia; and over 300 in each Florida, Tennessee, and Philadelphia, one source said.
Layoffs could continue into Friday at some IRS offices around the country if weather conditions prevent managers and employees from getting to work, according to an email sent to managers of probationary employees and obtained by ABC News.
The layoffs arrive in the middle of tax season as millions of Americans are filing their returns and hoping for timely refunds — but the exact impact on filing season is not yet clear.
Teams within the IRS being impacted by the layoffs include members of the small business/self-employed unit and clerks in various units, sources told ABC News.
Also impacted are members of the appeals team, whose role is to “resolve disputes, without litigation” with taxpayers, according to the IRS website, as well as employees with the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS that helps to “protect taxpayer rights” and advocate for taxpayers who have issues with the IRS or are experiencing financial hardship.
Ahead of the layoffs, the IRS combed through an initial list of approximately 15,000 probationary employees to try to ensure that no one being laid off this week plays a “direct” role in filing season, sources said. But there are still widespread concerns within the IRS that the firings could ultimately cause delays:
One former IRS commissioner told ABC News it’s “unrealistic” to think firings could occur during filing season and that the process would still run entirely smoothly.
“The bottom line: Forever, it has been an absolute rule of thumb that you keep things stable during filing season. Because it’s delicate,” the former commissioner said. “And the idea that nearly 10% of the entire IRS workforce is being laid off right in the middle of filing season is extremely risky.”
The former commissioner said filing season is like an assembly line with incoming and outgoing products: there are incoming tax forms and correspondence, and outgoing credits, refunds, and balance-due notices.
“There are layers of indirect support that go into that — that could be technology, other types of logistics, supply chains. If you lose that capacity, it will diminish productivity,” the former commissioner said. “Filing season is all hands on deck. Something could break down. You could need to surge resources to one area of service. Things don’t always go as planned at the assembly line.”
“We can expect Americans to experience a return to slower refunds, to longer waits on hold, to dropped calls,” Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, said on a call with reporters Thursday. “It’s going to be a real impact on customer service right as taxes are due this year.”
One probationary worker expecting to be fired told ABC News that “termination of probationary employees could prolong audits.”
Another agency official said morale at the IRS is “low” and that they expected remaining workers to “protest internally in ways that could impact filing season.”
On Thursday morning, a union representing IRS employees distributed a letter to members with instructions on what to do if they receive a termination letter.
“Print out everything in your Employee Personnel File that verifies when you started your job,” the email said. “Print last three paystubs and W-2. Print your annual appraisal. Keep your printed copies at home.”
An IRS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Sources told ABC News that they expect further layoffs after tax season, and senior Trump administration officials have said that Trump wants to dismantle the tax-collecting agency entirely, which would require congressional approval.
“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Fox News Wednesday night, referencing Trump’s proposal to create an “External Revenue Agency” to collect tariffs on foreign imports.
Experts say that abolishing the IRS would be extraordinarily difficult, and that it’s the sole government agency that collects the taxpayer money Trump is using to pay for his priorities, including border enforcement.
The IRS also would have to oversee any repayments to taxpayers envisioned by Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk, who recently floated the idea that Americans should receive a percentage of savings from the widespread government cuts.
“I love it. A 20% dividend, so to speak, for the money that we’re saving by going after the waste, fraud and abuse and all of the other things that are happening,” Trump said this week. “I think it’s a great idea.”
The cuts come two years after the IRS received tens of billions of dollars in funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which the agency said helped it hire more customer service representatives — thereby cutting in half the average time needed to process taxpayer correspondence from 7 months to 3.5 months.
At the end of fiscal year 2024, the IRS employed a total of 100,433 people — including accountants, managers, lawyers and other staff — which was up from about 90,000 the year before.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Elizabeth Schulze contributed to this report.
