Who is Karen Friedman Agnifilo? Luigi Mangione hires new lawyer

The suspect in the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, has hired Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former chief prosecutor at the Manhattan district attorney's office, to represent him when he's extradited back to New York.

In an emailed statement to Newsweek on Saturday afternoon, Friedman Agnifilo's current law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, confirmed that the Manhattan lawyer will represent the suspected shooter, adding that she will not be making any other statement at this time.

"Karen Friedman Agnifilo of Agnifilo Intrater LLP has been officially retained to represent Luigi Mangione in New York," her law firm stated.

Mangione, 26, had retained the high-profile lawyer hours after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. said Mangione might stop resisting his extradition to New York where he currently faces a second-degree murder charge in Thompson's death that occurred outside a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on December 4.

He was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday where he faces forgery and weapons charges.

"Indications are that the defendant may waive," Bragg said at a news conference Friday afternoon. "But that waiver is not complete until a court proceeding, which my understanding from court officials in Pennsylvania cannot happen until Tuesday."

Friedman Agnifilo's tenure as a public servant—specifically at the Manhattan district attorney's office—will likely aid in her defense of Mangione.

What Is Friedman Agnifilo's Background?

According to her online biography, Friedman Agnifilo, a graduate of the University of California and a 1992 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, worked at the New York City office for seven years under then-District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. While there, she played "a critical leadership role in prosecuting high-profile violent crime cases, including complex cases involving a mental health component, as well as cold case homicides."

According to the Institution for Innovation in Prosecution (IIP), during her time as a chief assistant district attorney of the Manhattan district attorney's office, Friedman Agnifilo oversaw an office of approximately 500 lawyers, 700 support staff and roughly 80,000 cases per year.

Before working for Vance Jr., she worked for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as general counsel to the criminal justice coordinator.

She has also worked as chief legal analyst for CNN, which first reported the news that Mangione had hired her.

In addition, Friedman Agnifilo is also the co-host of a weekly podcast on the Meidas Touch Network named Legal AF (Legal Analysis Friends) where she discusses emerging legal issues and litigation strategy. She is also the legal adviser for NBC's Law & Order.

What Are Others Saying About Friedman Agnifilo?

According to CNN analyst Jennifer Rodgers, who spoke on Friday's edition of The Source, Friedman Agnifilo is qualified to handle such a high-profile case, citing her many years a trial lawyer.

"So, really, what you want is a lawyer who can take you through the real case, right? The pretrial and, of course, the trial. And Karen is the sort of person with all of her many years of experience as a trial lawyer and in this actual courthouse and in this actual office. That's the sort of person you want," she said.

Who Was Luigi Mangione's Pennsylvania Attorney?

Pennsylvania attorney Thomas Dickey had been hired to lead the defense of Mangione, who is currently being held without bail in Pennsylvania.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to the charges that he faces in the Keystone State and has been fighting extradition to New York since being detained.

Dickey appeared alongside Mangione on Tuesday during an extradition hearing at Pennsylvania's Blair County Courthouse.

An experienced trial lawyer in his 41st year of private practice, Dickey graduated from Altoona High School and Saint Francis University before obtaining his law degree from Ohio Northern University.

Dickey has worked in private practice and with the Blair County Public Defenders Office. He is representing Mangione as private counsel. In addition to his courtroom work, Dickey has also acted as a legal analyst for CNN and other media outlets.

NYPD Talks About Evidence in Thompson's Death

Earlier this week, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) said Mangione's fingerprints appear to match those found near the site of Thompson's shooting.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference Wednesday that police were "able to match the person of interest fingerprints" with prints found on a water bottle and protein bar wrapper near the crime scene.

She added that shell casings recovered at the site matched the 3D-printed gun that Mangione possessed when he was detained in Altoona.

While Mangione has contested his extradition to New York, when he was arrested in Pennsylvania, a handwritten manifesto was also found in which he claims that he was acting alone and that he apologized "for any strife of traumas" that his actions had caused.

The manifesto also said the United States has the most expensive health care system in the world and the profits of large corporations continue to rise while "our life expectancy" does not.

It condemned corporations that "continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it," adding, "It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently, I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty."

Update 12/14/24, 1:41 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.