A man claiming to be an FBI agent showed up to a federal jail in New York City on Wednesday night and told officers he had a court order to release Luigi Mangione, authorities said.
Mark Anderson, a 36-year-old Minnesota native who has a history of drug and other arrests and disclosed last year in court papers that he suffers from mental illness, was arrested and charged with impersonating a federal officer in a foiled bid to free Mangione from the Metropolitan Detention Centre.
Mangione is being held at the Brooklyn jail while awaiting state and federal murder trials in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A criminal complaint against Anderson did not identify the person he attempted to free. A law enforcement official familiar with the matter confirmed it was Mangione.
Anderson was ordered held without bail after an initial appearance in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday. He was not required to enter a plea.
In a lawsuit last year alleging injuries from a fall at a city homeless shelter, Anderson said he has “multiple disabilities” and has been ruled by the Social Security Administration to be “fully disabled because of mental illness.” He said he had no money and said he received state and federal assistance.
According to public records, Anderson has had numerous drug and alcohol-related arrests and convictions over the past two decades in his native Minnesota and in Wisconsin, where he has also lived.
He also has cases pending in the Bronx, including one in which he’s accused of showing a gun.
Man had papers ‘signed by a judge’ and a pizza cutter
According to the criminal complaint, Anderson approached the jail intake area around 6:50 pm on Wednesday and told uniformed prison officers that he was an FBI agent in possession of paperwork “signed by a judge” authorising the release of a person in custody.
When the officers asked for his federal credentials, Anderson showed them a Minnesota driver’s licence, threw documents at them and claimed to have weapons, the criminal complaint said.
The documents appeared to be related to filing claims against the Justice Department, according to an FBI agent who viewed them and prepared the complaint.
Officers searched Anderson’s bag and found a barbecue fork and a circular steel blade, the complaint said.
In a photo included in the complaint, the blade appeared to be a small pizza cutter wheel.
Mangione due in court Friday as death penalty ruling looms
The alleged attempt to free Mangione added a bizarre twist to a critical stretch in his legal cases.
Hours before Anderson’s arrest, the Manhattan district attorney’s office sent a letter urging the judge in Mangione’s state case, Gregory Carro, to set a 1 July trial date.
On Friday, Mangione will be in court for a conference in his federal case. The judge in that case, Margaret Garnett, is expected to rule soon whether prosecutors can seek the death penalty and whether they can use certain evidence against him.
Last week, Garnett scheduled jury selection in the federal case for 8 September, with the rest of the trial happening in October or January, depending on whether she allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty in both cases. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison.
A celebrity figure for people upset with the health insurance industry, Mangione has attracted legions of supporters, some of whom have regularly turned up at his court appearances.
Brian Thompson, 50, was killed on 4 December 2024 as he walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference.
Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind.
Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
Mangione, a 27-year-old Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested give days later at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, about 370 kilometres west of Manhattan.
Additional sources • AP