UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Latest Murder: Who Is Mangione’s ‘Experienced’ New York Attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo?

Luigi Mangione has hired veteran former New York prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo to defend him against murder charges, according to a statement from her law firm Agnifilo Intrater LLP on Friday evening.

Friedman Agnifilo served as a deputy in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office under former District Attorney Cyrus Vance from 2014 to 2021. According to a biography on her law firm’s website, she played a leading role in prosecuting “high-profile violent crime cases,” including cases involving mental health and unsolved homicides.

“Karen Friedman Agnifilo has three decades of criminal justice, litigation and litigation experience. Her practice focuses on criminal defense in state and federal courts, leveraging her extensive experience in prosecuting serious violent crimes, including complex murder cases, from prosecution through investigation to arrest and trial,” her bio states.

“During her tenure in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Ms. Friedman Agnifilo was also instrumental in the creation of and worked on the Human Trafficking Unit, the Hate Crimes Unit, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, the Terrorism Unit, and the Cybercrimes and Identity Theft Bureau Founded “Manhattan’s first mental health court,” the biography continued.

Friedman Agnifilo is also a frequent television news guest and commentator and a former legal analyst for CNN.

She also co-hosts a weekly podcast on the Meidas Touch Network discussing emerging legal issues and litigation strategies, which routinely has half a million listeners per episode, according to her bio. She is also a legal advisor on the television show Law and Order.

Meanwhile, law enforcement sources told ABC News that the writings seized from Luigi Mangione indicate that he has developed a fixation and increasing malice toward UnitedHealthcare and has allegedly been talking for months about harming its leader.

Some of the entries in the notebook seized from Mangione when he was arrested in Pennsylvania earlier this week contained data dating back to mid-2024, the sources said.

That fixation would eventually evolve into an alleged plan to shoot that CEO, the sources said.

Some of the notes were diary-style, documenting how he was feeling, what he was doing that day, and also documenting a desire to focus on his health and himself and finding his purpose, the sources said.

Then, over time — as Mangione allegedly lost touch with friends and family and became increasingly isolated — some of his writings suggested a deterioration in his thinking and mental state, illustrating a gradual convergence toward the alleged killing plan, sources said, the UnitedHealthCare CEO at their “Annual Conference on Parasite Bean Counters.”

Mangione’s writings, obtained by ABC News, claim that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world but ranks 42nd in life expectancy. He said UnitedHealthcare was “always growing, but like our life expectancy? No, the reality is that these (inaudible) have simply become too powerful and continue to abuse our country for immense profit.”

“I apologize for any traumatic confrontation, but it had to be done,” he reportedly wrote. “Honestly, these parasites just had it.”

According to UnitedHealth Group, neither Mangione nor his parents had insurance through UnitedHealthcare.

Mangione, 26, is currently being held at a Pennsylvania state prison after a judge denied him bail on Tuesday.