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Minnesota man accused of impersonating FBI agent to free

Mangione

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Mangione seen as folk hero by some who decry high

healthcare

costs

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Mangione's trial set for September, lawyers challenge

death

penalty

By Jack Queen

NEW YORK, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A Minnesota man has been

accused of impersonating an FBI agent to attempt freeing accused

health ‌insurance CEO killer Luigi Mangione from a Brooklyn

prison, while carrying a barbecue fork and a pizza-cutter blade,

court records show.

Mangione, 27, is ​awaiting trial in a death penalty murder case

on charges that he gunned down Brian Thompson, ‍the CEO of

UnitedHealthcare in Manhattan in 2024. Public officials

condemned the shocking ⁠killing but Mangione became ⁠a folk hero

to some Americans who decry steep healthcare costs and insurance

company practices. He has pleaded not guilty to murder ‌and other

charges in separate state and federal cases.

Brooklyn federal ​prosecutors on Wednesday accused Mark

Anderson, 36, of Mankato, Minnesota, of showing up at the

Metropolitan Detention Center and telling prison staff that he

was an FBI agent with ⁠paperwork signed by a judge authorizing

the release ‍of an inmate.

The ​criminal complaint does not identify the inmate, but a

law enforcement source, who was not authorized to speak

publicly, said it was Mangione. Anderson was working at a

pizzeria after arriving ‍in New York, the source said.

Information on a legal representative for Anderson was not

immediately available on Thursday.

Prosecutors said Anderson provided his Minnesota driver's

license when asked to show credentials and told prison guards he

had weapons. Guards arrested and searched Anderson and found a

barbecue fork and a round pizza-cutter blade in his backpack,

according to the complaint.

He threw documents at the guards that appeared to ​be

unspecified claims ‍against the U.S. Department of Justice,

according to the complaint.

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in December

2024 after a five-day manhunt that followed Thompson's murder.

Police say they found ​a 3D-printed handgun, a silencer and a

note criticizing the U.S. healthcare system in his backpack.

Mangione's pretrial hearings have been packed with

spectators, many of whom voice support for him, and

demonstrators have gathered outside courthouses to protest

against health insurance industry practices.

He is tentatively set to stand trial in Manhattan federal

court in September on charges of murder with a firearm, use of a

firearm in a crime and stalking. Mangione's lawyers have asked a

judge ​to either throw out the indictment over alleged legal

deficiencies or to block prosecutors from seeking the death

penalty if he is convicted.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to murder, weapons and

forgery charges in a separate case in state court in Manhattan.

No trial ‍date has been set.