Luigi Mangione’s Pennsylvania attorney argues search, arrest were illegal
Luigi Mangione appears at a hearing for the murder of UHC CEO Brian Thompson at Manhattan Criminal Court on February 21, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Curtis Means – Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A defense attorney for Luigi Mangione, the man charged with killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, insists a police search and arrest inside a Pennsylvania McDonald’s late last year were illegal.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a five-day manhunt for the suspect in the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York City hotel on Dec. 4.
In a court filing posted to the Pennsylvania court docket Friday, Mangione’s Pennsylvania attorney, Thomas Dickey, said Mangione was never properly read his rights.
Instead, Dickey said, officers from the Altoona Police Department “continued to interrogate and question the Defendant, without any reading of his Miranda Rights.”
The defense lawyer also said Mangione was given “a specious and unreasonable” answer for why the officers approached him.
“At no time did the two officers indicate that Defendant was free to go; nor did they explain the reasons as to why Defendant was being detained; other than that, he looked suspicious and/or over stayed his welcome as a customer at McDonalds,” Dickey wrote.
In Pennsylvania, Mangione has pleaded not guilty to charges of forgery, possession of an instrument of a crime and giving a false ID to an officer.
He has also pleaded not guilty to murder charges in New York, a case that takes precedence over the case in Pennsylvania, where court dates have been scrapped and no new dates set. Mangione also faces federal charges, including a charge of murder through the use of a firearm, which makes him eligible for the death penalty.
His New York attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has also raised questions about Mangione’s treatment in Pennsylvania custody, arguing during a recent hearing that police body camera footage indicates her client’s “constitutional rights were violated.”
“I think there’s a very, very serious search issue in this matter, and there might be evidence that is suppressed,” Agnifilo said.
(NEW YORK) — Dangerous, heavy rain is pounding the Los Angeles area, bringing a threat of flooding and debris flow to spots impacted by the recent devastating wildfires.
The rain will fluctuate from heavy to moderate to light throughout the morning, and rates may approach 1 inch per hour on steeper terrain.
One to 2 inches of rain is expected in the LA area, with more rain possible at higher elevations.
The rain will reach San Diego on Thursday morning and will end across Southern California in the afternoon.
Over 20 million people from the Los Angeles area to the San Diego area are under a flood watch.
The greatest risk for flooding and debris flow is in burn scar areas left by wildfires.
The burn scars and mountains around San Diego — where 1 to 3 inches of rain is expected — are the greatest risk for debris flows and rockslides.
In LA County, evacuation orders and warnings were issued for some burn scar areas impacted by January’s devastating Eaton and Palisades fires, according to the sheriff’s department and the mayor’s office.
“Wireless Emergency Alerts have been sent to targeted areas in and around where the Evacuation Warnings and Orders will be in effect,” the mayor’s office said.
(WASHINGTON) — More than 100 intelligence community employees will be terminated and have their security clearances revoked as the intelligence community investigates group chats that allegedly discussed explicit behavior, officials said.
The chats, which were hosted on a chat system for the intelligence community that was maintained by the National Security Agency, took place on a secure intranet called Intelink in two server channels titled “LBTQA” and “IC_Pride_TWG,” according to intelligence community officials.
“This behavior is unacceptable and those involved WILL be held accountable,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard posted on X.
She said the “disgusting chat groups” were immediately shut down when President Donald Trump issued his executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the federal government, which she called the “DEI insanity the Biden Admin was obsessed with.”
“Our IC must be focused on our core mission: ensuring the safety, security, and freedom of the American people,” Gabbard said.
Deputy Chief of Staff Alexa Henning said in a post on X Tuesday evening, “The DNI sent a memo directing all intelligence agencies to identify the employees who participated in the NSA’s ‘obscene, pornographic, and sexually explicit’ chatrooms and to terminate their employment and revoke their security clearances. Deadline: Friday.”
Gabbard, in an interview on Fox News, said on Tuesday: “There are over 100 people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and participated in this — what is really just an egregious violation of trust, what to speak of, like, basic rules and standards around professionalism. I put out a directive today that they all will be terminated and their security clearances will be revoked.”
Gabbard added: “Today’s action in holding these individuals accountable is just the beginning of what we’re seeing across the Trump administration, which is carrying out the mandate the American people gave him: Clean house, root out that rot and corruption and weaponization and politicization, so we can start to rebuild that trust in these institutions that are charged with an important mission of serving the American people, ensuring our safety, security and freedom.”
The chat conversations were first reported by the conservative magazine City Journal.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge, in a ruling late Friday evening, has denied an effort to block the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive data from the Department of Labor.
In his ruling, federal Judge John D. Bates found that the five federal employee unions that alleged Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team sought to illegally access highly sensitive data, including medical records, failed to establish standing.
“Although the Court harbors concerns about defendants’ alleged conduct, it must deny plaintiffs’ motion at this time,” Judge Bates said in his ruling.
During the hearing, the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that if DOGE accessed DOL data, it would cause irreparable harm to their clients.
However, in his ruling, Bates found that the plaintiffs did not show that “at least one particular member is substantially likely to suffer an injury at the hands of the defendant.”
During Friday’s hearing, attorneys for the five unions argued that access to the data would also violate the Privacy Act.
“We’ve demonstrated that by having access to these systems, the personal information in them is necessarily at harm with the disclosure of sensitive information,” one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued. “It’s unlawful.”
The Department of Justice argued that DOGE employees would have access to data needed to assist the Labor Department in improving its information technology and data systems. The DOJ attorney also argued that DOGE employees are authorized under the Privacy Act and that they would not share data with anyone outside the agency, including other DOGE employees.
Bates pushed back on the DOJ attorneys, saying they were asking him to have “a great deal of confidence in people who, according to public reports, are very young, who have never been in the federal government, who have never had any training with respect to the hands of confidential information.”
“[You] are asking me to just put absolute confidence in the fact that nothing will happen,” Bates said.
Attorneys for the unions said they planned to amend their complaint over the weekend to include three other federal agencies: Health and Human Services, the Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“Department of Labor employees have been told to unquestionably give DOGE operatives access to any system or information they request, or else face termination,” the lawsuit said, alleging that DOGE’s pattern of conduct has been “replete with violations of law.”
Musk’s private companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, have been investigated and fined by parts of the Department of Labor, and at least one of his companies is being actively investigated. Musk has denied all wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, in response to a lawsuit by several federal employee unions, lawyers with the Justice Department agreed to a temporary restraining order that would largely prohibit DOGE from accessing Treasury Department data.
As DOGE has, according to the suit, “zeroed in on and sought unprecedented access to sensitive information” from other federal agencies, including the Treasury Department and Department of Education, the lawsuit raised red flags about Musk’s intrusion into the Department of Labor because of the sensitivity of their records related to the administration of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act.
According to the lawsuit, Labor Department records include injury reports for thousands of employees, medical records, claim forms, and personal information gathered during the administration of FECA claims.
The department also has records of at least 86,000 workers’ compensation claims from 2024 alone that could be breached by DOGE, the suit said.
“The threats to the Department of Labor that give rise to this action and application for emergency relief represent yet another iteration of what is fast becoming a pattern for DOGE: exceeding its narrow mission and exercising authority it does not (and cannot) possess by exerting control over agencies through personal attacks and threats of unlawful reprisals, and harming people and the stability of our nation in the process,” the lawsuit said.
In a court filing Thursday, Justice Department attorneys representing DOGE argued that the federal unions who brought the case failed to show how they would be harmed by the sharing of data between DOGE and the Labor Department, acknowledging that multiple DOGE representatives have already been sent to work for the department.
“Plaintiffs cannot establish standing, much less irreparable harm, to challenge the sharing of unstated categories of information from unidentified records systems to unknown individuals working in the Executive Branch,” their filing said.
The lawsuit further alleged that Musk — described as an “an unappointed, unelected, and temporarily serving official” — has sought to “run roughshod” over the Labor Department at the same time it has active investigations pending into his private companies.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration — which falls under the Labor Department — previously investigated and fined Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla for multiple safety incidents, including one in connection with a SpaceX employee’s death. OSHA also has multiple open investigations into Musk’s Boring Company.
“Mr. Musk would ordinarily be unable to access nonpublic information regarding those investigations,” the lawsuit said. “In light of the blanket instruction to provide DOGE employees with ‘anything they want,’ Mr. Musk or his associates will be able to access that information simply by asking DOL employees for it.”
The plaintiffs are asking the judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would prohibit the Department of Labor from sharing any records with DOGE.
