According to his lawyer, Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has accepted nearly $300,000 in donations from “fans” to pay for his criminal defense.
The December 4 Legal Committee, a group that raised the money and is named after the date in which Thompson was shot and killed in Manhattan, confirmed the transfer of money on Monday to Mangione’s legal fund, Fox News reported.
The December 4 [D4] Legal Committee describes itself as “a team of 15 volunteers around the United States” that was “created independently by Mangione’s supporters on his behalf.”
The D4 committee’s spokespeople, Sam Beard and Jamie Peck, also host a podcast “about communism and gossip” called “Party Girls.”
“Luigi is aware of the fund and very much appreciates the outpouring of support,” Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione’s attorney, said in a statement, according to the fundraisers.
“My client plans on utilizing it to fight all three of the unprecedented cases against him,” Agnifilo added.
Mangione is charged with first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism, stalking and a slew of other state and federal charges in both New York and Pennsylvania, for allegedly gunning down Thompson.
“It’s shocking that anybody would raise money for a person [accused of killing] someone in broad daylight in cold blood. There are so many other causes in this country that a person could raise money for,” former Washington, D.C., homicide detective, criminal trial attorney and Fox News contributor Ted Williams said of the donations.
“Mangione, by the way, came from a very well-off family…raising money for him is like applauding murder.”
Williams questioned the “mental stability” of anyone who would raise money for a murder suspect, calling the act “sick.”
“I find it sad in America where we can witness one man murdering another man and amplify the murderer. It is appalling to me that anybody would raise even a dollar for a person who killed another person in cold blood,” Williams said. “Yes, a person is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. However, given everything we know about Luigi…all the evidence points directly to him. I am just shocked that because of a person’s status, i.e. being a health care executive, that anybody in America could be cheering the death of a human being.”