UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione (NYPD/Facebook).
The alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer, Luigi Mangione, has seen $130,000 donated toward him through crowdfunding efforts, with the cash being placed in a defense fund by an anonymous group known as “The December 4th Legal Committee.”
“We are not here to celebrate violence, but we do believe in the constitutional right to fair legal representation,” the group says in the description of its online fundraiser, which was posted on the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo after Mangione was arrested for the Dec. 4 murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan, New York.
His legal fund ballooned to over $130,000 on Monday, with donations coming in from people showing “support” for the alleged killer.
“As someone with medical issues most of my life, I am so grateful for your sacrifice to enlighten all about the disgraceful manner in which health insurance is administered,” wrote one donor in a message posted on the December 4th Legal Committee’s X page Monday. “Get the best legal team you can!” they said.
Another anonymous giver wrote, “My mother died because United healthcare denied her radiation treatment for her cancer. This man avenged her death and the death of so many others caused by the hands of the violent healthcare system in America.”
— December 4th Legal Committee (@d4legalcomm) December 13, 2024
The crowdfunding campaign has been joined by GoFundMe pages that have popped up online and been deleted over the past two weeks. NBC News reported Friday that at least three fundraisers were posted on the platform and later removed, prompting GoFundMe to refund the donors who contributed.
“GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes,” a company rep told NBC.
While “innocent until proven guilty” has been touted by the December 4th Legal Committee and Mangione’s supporters, the crowdfunding efforts have largely been coupled with online praise and admiration for his targeting of a high-ranking chief executive in the health care industry. Law enforcement officials have said that they are worried Mangione, 26, is being turned into a martyr, according to ABC News.
“Many social media users have outright advocated for the continued killings of CEOs with some aiming to spread fear by posting ‘hit lists,”” reads a Dec. 11 bulletin from the multiagency law enforcement group, Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, ABC reported.
Photographs were included in the document showing a banner that was hung across a highway overpass with the words “deny, defend, depose,” on it — the same words Mangione allegedly scrawled on a trio of bullet shell casings left at the scene of Thompson’s murder.
Mangione faces a count of second-degree murder in New York and gun charges in Pennsylvania for the alleged “ghost gun” he was caught with after allegedly using it to kill Thompson, according to NYPD officials.
A manifesto that Mangione was allegedly caught with, according to cops, criticized health care companies for prioritizing profit margins over care. The NYPD says the document also showed he had “ill will toward corporate America.”
Mangione’s attorney in Pennsylvania, Thomas Dickey, has said that he will likely not accept any money from the online legal fund or Mangione’s supporters. Just well-wishes will do.
“To be honest with you, I probably wouldn’t,” Dickey told CNN on Dec. 10. “I just don’t feel comfortable about that. … Obviously, my client appreciates the support that he has, but I don’t know, it just doesn’t sit right with me, really.”
Asked why he thought people were so infatuated with Mangione, Dickey said: “I don’t know. … The Supreme Court says, all these rich billionaires can give all kind of money to candidates, and that’s free speech. So, maybe these people were exercising their right to free speech, and saying, that’s the way they’re supporting my client.”
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, has reportedly been retained to handle the murder case.
Mangione has been described as an Ivy League graduate and high school valedictorian with a wealthy and well-known family from Maryland that owns country clubs and golf courses. His mother filed a missing persons report for him on Nov. 18 in San Francisco, just 16 days before the shooting, after not hearing from him. She allegedly spoke with a task force of FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives on Dec. 8 — the day before Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania — and helped identify him through surveillance photos.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg reported Friday that Mangione was expected to waive extradition to New York as early as Tuesday as he remains in custody at a Pennsylvania state prison.
