• Ex-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani risks being held in contempt in federal court in Manhattan.
• Two GA election workers said he repeatedly ignored court orders in their federal defamation case.
• If he's found in contempt, Trump could not issue a pardon or commute his sentence.

Rudy Giuliani took the witness stand in federal court in New York on Friday, battling a potential contempt-of-court finding sought by two Georgia election workers — and Donald Trump can't come to his rescue if he loses.

If a judge decides Giuliani has flouted court orders by failing to turn over assets and evidence in the three-year-old defamation case, he could fine Giuliani or send him to jail until he complies.

The federal pardon and commutation powers Trump regains on his return to the White House next month do not extend to civil contempt sentences.

According to experts in constitutional law and federal pardons, Giuliani would not be able to rely on his former client to save him from jail or fines.

"Generally criminal contempt is within the power of the president, but civil contempt is not," said Margaret Love, a lawyer who served as the Justice Department pardon attorney in the 1990s.

Giuliani was combative on the stand on Friday, at a daylong contempt-of-court hearing overseen by US District Judge Lewis Liman in a courthouse in downtown Manhattan.

The hearing, which will continue next week, is part of a suite of civil cases brought by mother-daughter Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss.

"This is monstrously overbroad," Giuliani complained of Moss-Freeman asset-document requests during questioning at one point on Friday. "It's abusive and overbroad."

A federal judge in Washington, DC, found in 2023 that Giuliani defamed the pair — and subjected them to a barrage of racist death threats — by repeatedly and falsely accusing them of voter fraud, including by lying that they had tallied suitcases full of illegal ballots for Joe Biden.

In December 2023, a jury ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman and Moss $148 million. In recent weeks, the two plaintiffs have sought to have him held in contempt in DC and in Manhattan to force him to comply with judges' demands that he cease defaming them and turn over assets and evidence as ordered.

The contempt hearing is scheduled to continue Monday morning.

Giuliani's defense has focused on his recent switch of lawyers from Kenneth Caruso, an experienced New York-based attorney he has known for nearly 50 years, to Joseph Cammarata, best known for representing a woman who accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct.

Giuliani swapped lawyers sometime in November. Giuliani said that changing attorneys had made it a challenge to meet deadlines — an excuse that the pair's lawyers did not accept.

Cammarata said in court Friday that his client has completed "substantial compliance" with his obligations and should not be held in contempt.

He said that Giuliani, who is 80 years old, has struggled to deal with an avalanche of legal proceedings against him, including criminal investigations. Prosecutors in Arizona and Georgia have brought cases against Giuliani over his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump.

"Mayor Giuliani, as this court knows, has multiple litigations going on in multiple states, both civil and criminal in nature," Cammarata said.

Giuliani took the stand — struggling up a step by the podium — after the court's lunch break. At the beginning of the break, he complained to Jane Rosenberg, a courtroom artist, about how she depicted him in one of her pastel drawings.

"You made me look like my dog," he told her, Rosenberg said.

Giuliani was cross-examined by Meryl Conant Governski, an attorney representing Freeman and Moss, about two sworn declarations he had submitted to the court saying that he's abided by all of the judge's orders and provided proper responses to information requests and interrogatories.

He said that the turnaround time required for discovery requests was "unusually short" even though his previous attorney, Caruso, had agreed to the 14-day response deadlines.

In the morning, Cammarata cross-examined Aaron Nathan, an attorney representing Freeman and Moss, over how he determined whether the former New York mayor had failed to account for his property. Many of the questions concerned Giuliani's framed Joe DiMaggio jersey that once hung over the fireplace in his Manhattan apartment.

When Nathan gained access to the apartment in October and searched the residence, it was gone.

"This jersey has been at the forefront of the case," Cammarata said in one heated moment. "There have been accusations that my client absconded with the jersey. And that is not the case."

Cammarata, in winding and plodding cross-examination, pointed out that the photo of the jersey in the apartment was taken in the summer of 2023, and time had passed before Nathan went into the apartment and saw the location himself.

"Your honor, if I may, I want to take his testimony about the passage of time," Cammarata objected after the judge cut off his questioning on the subject.

The day before Friday's hearing, Giuliani asked for permission to attend virtually, due to "medical issues with his left knee and breathing problems due to lung issues discovered last year," as his lawyer, explained it in a letter to the judge.

The breathing problems are "attributable to Defendant Rudolph W. Giuliani being at the World Trade Center site on September 11, 2001," Cammarata wrote.

Giuliani attended in person after the judge warned he'd otherwise be barred from testifying on his own behalf.

Should Giuliani be found in contempt, "the executive pardon power would not extend to a civil contempt sentence," even in a federal court, said former federal prosecutor Ephraim Savitt.

That's because Giuliani's jailing wouldn't be a punishment for a past infraction — instead, it would be a remedial sentence, meant to force his compliance with the judge's orders.

"Civil contempt sentences are essentially open-ended," meaning Giuliani could only be freed once he had complied, said Savitt.

"It's a means of coercing a party to take some action, to compel compliance," said Michel Paradis, who teaches constitutional law at Columbia Law School.

"So long as Giuliani has the keys to his own cell, and can be freed by simply complying with the judge's order, then there is no crime to be pardoned or punishment to be reprieved," he added.

• Authorities say a driver deliberately plowed into a crowd of people in New Orleans early Wednesday.
• 15 people were killed, and at least 35 more were injured.
• The suspect is a 42-year-old named Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, the FBI now says.

The man accused of plowing into a crowd in the heart of New Orleans in an ISIS-inspired attack that killed 15 people acted alone, an FBI official said Thursday.

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect in the attack as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a 42-year-old US Army veteran, and have described it as a premeditated act of terrorism.

Officials say he killed 14 people and injured at least 35 more others after driving into the crowd with a rented truck early on New Year's Day and started shooting before being killed in a shootout with police.

At a press conference Thursday, Christopher Raia, an FBI counterterrorism official involved in the investigation, walked back earlier claims that other people may have assisted Jabbar with the attack.

He said officials have since reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and other records, and believe Jabbar acted alone.

"We do not assess, at this point, that anyone else has been involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar," Raia said at the New Orleans press conference.

Raia also said investigators have not found any links between the New Orleans attack and a Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas outside a Trump hotel, while cautioning the investigations into each event were still in their early stages. Both trucks were rented through the vehicle-sharing app Turo, and officials say the perpetrator in the Las Vegas attack was an active-duty Army soldier.

"At this point, there's is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas," Raia said.

The truck slammed through Bourbon Street

New Orleans was still reeling Thursday after the driver, later identified as Jabbar, drove a rented Ford pickup truck through the crowd on Bourbon Street at about 3:15 a.m. on New Year's Day.

Several improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were also found near the scene of the attack. An ISIS flag was found in the vehicle's trunk, according to Raia.

Raia said that authorities initially believed other people may have been involved in the attack because of witnesses who said they saw people setting down coolers containing the IEDs.

But surveillance footage showed that Jabbar set down coolers containing two IEDs himself, Raia said. According to Raia, footage showed other people later "checking out" the coolers, but they did not seem to have any role in the attack. Reports of additional IEDs could not be substantiated, Raia said.

Officials had also earlier said that a fire in a New Orleans house, which was rented from Airbnb, may have been where the IEDs were assembled. But authorities said at Thursday's press conference that they now believe the fire is likely unrelated to the attack.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said "information changes" as the investigation continues.

"No one dumps a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle and solves it in five seconds," he said at the press conference Thursday.

Jabbar's criminal record, obtained from the Texas Department of Public Safety and viewed by Business Insider, shows two prior arrests in 2002 and 2005. The first was for theft, while the other was for driving with an invalid license. Both were classified as misdemeanors.

Support for ISIS posted on Facebook

At Thursday's press conference, Raia said Jabbar rented the Ford truck in Houston on December 30 and headed to New Orleans on December 31.

He said Jabbar made a series of Facebook posts during his journey expressing support for ISIS and posting a last will and testament.

Raia also said that investigators believe Jabbar joined ISIS before this past summer.

In a statement to Business Insider, the car-sharing app Turo said Jabbar used its service to rent the truck.

"We are heartbroken to learn that one of our host's vehicles was involved in this awful incident," the statement reads. "We are actively partnering with the FBI. We are not currently aware of anything in this guest's background that would have identified him as a trust and safety threat to us at the time of the reservation."

Starting Wednesday evening, Texas authorities performed a search of a location in Houston believed to be linked to Jabbar, the FBI said.

At Thursday's press conference, officials said they had obtained two laptops and three phones connected to Jabbar, which they have been examining.

The agency said it's made no arrests but had deployed specialized personnel, including a SWAT team, crisis negotiators, and a bomb squad, to the Houston location.

The search finished early Thursday, with the agency saying that it could not release more information, but that "there is no threat to residents in that area."

Superintendent Anne E. Kirkpatrick of the New Orleans Police Department said during an earlier press conference that a man drove a pickup truck down Bourbon Street "at a very fast pace." Kirkpatrick said the man drove into the crowd intentionally.

She also said the driver shot two police officers, who she said were in stable condition.

Kirkpatrick said it appeared that most of those injured were locals rather than tourists.

Eyewitness accounts

NOLA Ready, the city's emergency preparedness campaign, had initially said there was "a mass casualty incident involving a vehicle that drove into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon Street."

Kevin Garcia, a 22-year-old who was present at the time, told CNN, "All I seen was a truck slamming into everyone on the left side of Bourbon sidewalk."

He said that "a body came flying at me," and that he heard gunshots.

One witness told CBS that a driver plowed into the crowd on Bourbon Street at high speed and that the driver got out and started firing a weapon, with the police firing back.

Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana said on X on Wednesday that a "horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning."

"Please join Sharon and I in praying for all the victims and first responders on scene," he wrote, referring to his wife. "I urge all near the scene to avoid the area."

Bourbon Street, in the city's French Quarter, is a famous party destination.

Some streets in and around the French Quarter were due to be closed for New Year's celebrations, with Canal Street expected to stay open unless traffic got too bad, the local outlet Fox 8 WVUE-TV reported.

As a result of the attack, the Sugar Bowl football game between the University of Georgia and the University of Notre Dame was postponed from Wednesday night to Thursday afternoon.

Local officials tried to assure the public that the city was now safe, with additional law enforcement deployed everywhere.

"The city of New Orleans is not only ready for game day today but also to host large-scale events," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Thursday.

• In the new year, blockbuster legal cases will play out in US courts.
• Major criminal cases include Sean "Diddy" Combs and Luigi Mangione.
• In the civil arena, the DOJ's list of antitrust lawsuits will make their way to court.

As we enter the new year, dockets are filling up with blockbuster court cases in the US.

Criminal courts in Manhattan are preparing for the trial of rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs and early hearings in the prosecution of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

In the civil arena, lawyers are gearing up for a year of antitrust lawsuits brought by the DOJ against Big Tech, Visa, and other companies it accuses of monopolizing their industries.

While 2024 was the year of Donald Trump in court, there's still much to be done in the coming year as his fight to clear his rap sheet and zero out his civil judgments continues.

Here are some of the cases Business Insider will be watching this year:

Sean "Diddy" Combs cases

Sean "Diddy" Combs — founder of Bad Boy Records and the Sean John brand — is due to stand trial in federal court in Manhattan on May 5 on a sex-trafficking indictment that could send him to prison for life. Prosecutors have also warned that a second indictment is imminent.

Given what's already in the record, trial testimony and evidence will be graphic, and the courtroom jousting will be heated. Combs' defense is that he never forced anyone to have sex, and that his accusers have financial motive to implicate him. The trial will likely focus on consent and credibility.

Combs' mother and his six oldest children — who range from teenagers to early 30s — have attended pretrial hearings, waving and smiling at him from the audience. The trial may prove less family-friendly. The evidence includes hundreds of hours of videotape from the rap mogul's sex parties — especially from his so-called freak-off performances, along with testimony by male sex workers who attended the parties. The trial will not be televised.

Separately, Combs faces more than 30 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse. "No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won't change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted, or sex trafficked anyone," his attorneys recently said in a statement.

Luigi Mangione court case

Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old software developer from a Maryland real estate family, will face state and federal murder charges in Manhattan this year in the December ambush shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He risks a maximum sentence of life in prison and, in the federal case, the death penalty — though it has been more than 60 years since a Manhattan jury has sent anyone to death row.

Both the state and federal prosecutions are in their early days. While Mangione has pleaded not guilty in his state case, he is not set to enter a plea to his federal indictment until later this month.

It's possible Mangione will go to trial in 2025, though it's unlikely. His attorney suggested prior to taking the case that he could pursue some kind of psychiatric defense, which could delay the trial into 2026.

Donald Trump's court cases

The president-elect's criminal indictments have sputtered to a halt, thanks in large part to the US Supreme Court's July presidential immunity decision. Loose ends remain in the Manhattan hush-money case, as Trump works to clear his rap sheet of its sole conviction before his January 20 inauguration.

There is still no sentencing date, and New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has yet to rule on Trump's demand that the case be tossed in the interest of justice, given the election. Also pending is Trump's Second Circuit appellate efforts to move the hush-money case to federal court.

Meanwhile, Trump begins 2025 with a half-billion-dollars in civil court judgments hanging over his head, all of which he's in the midst of aggressively appealing, including his two E. Jean Carroll defamation cases. A midlevel New York appellate court could keep, trim, or overturn the biggest of Trump's judgments at any time — his massive civil fraud penalty, a debt to New York state that remains frozen on appeal, which has now ballooned to $490 million with interest. He remains a defendant in eight civil cases brought by injured Capitol Police officers and members of Congress involving his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

TikTok ban

In the spring, Congress passed a law that would ban TikTok from app stores in the United States unless Bytedance, the platform's Chinese owner, divested itself from the app.

The deadline is January 19. Bytedance still owns TikTok. A Washington, DC-based appeals court was unpersuaded by TikTok's arguments that its users' First Amendment rights outweigh the national security-based reasoning of Congress's law.

All eyes are on the US Supreme Court to see whether it will strike down the law before the deadline. The court agreed to hear oral arguments in the case on January 10.

Nvidia

The Justice Department has reportedly been ramping up an antitrust investigation into the chipmaker throughout 2024. Competitors have said Nvidia uses unfair marketing tactics to gain a stranglehold on the market for chips used in AI development, while the company says it simply offers a best-in-class product. If the DOJ brings a lawsuit or comes to a settlement with Nvidia, it'll likely come in 2025.

Meta antitrust lawsuit

The Federal Trade Commission sued Meta during the first Trump administration, alleging it had an illegal monopoly on the social media market through its ownership of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The Biden administration has kept up the lawsuit, which scored a major victory in November when a federal judge allowed most of the case to go to trial.

Meta says the company's acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram have been good for consumers. If it loses the trial — scheduled for April — the FTC will seek to force the company to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp.

Google antitrust lawsuit

Google search case

Alphabet was dealt a major blow in 2024 when a federal judge concluded Google formed an illegal monopoly in the search market. Now the company is tussling with the Justice Department over how it should be punished. Google suggested it could pull back some of its partnerships with other companies. The DOJ has asked the judge to force Google to divest from its Chrome browser, a more dramatic move. The decision — and the many appeals to come — will continue to play out in 2025.

Google advertising case

Another major Google antitrust case is over its role in online advertising. In September, a federal court held a bench trial to determine whether the company formed another illegal monopoly, in the adtech market.

Google claims the Justice Department has overstated its role in the market, where it competes fiercely with the likes of Meta and Amazon.

A decision is expected to come sometime in 2025, with appeals to follow.

Amazon antitrust lawsuit

In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and a group of states sued Amazon, alleging it abused its dominance in the online retail space to inflate prices, squeeze third-party sellers with onerous fees, and push its in-house products at the expense of others. Amazon has said it does everything for the benefit of consumers, to whom it provides better products and better prices.

In September, a federal judge knocked down some of the states' claims but allowed the bulk of the lawsuit to proceed to trial. The trial date is scheduled for 2026, with more litigation and appeals expected to take place before then.

New York Times vs OpenAI

All sorts of content creators — journalists, novelists, filmmakers, photographers — have filed a slew of copyright lawsuits against AI companies, accusing them of illegally siphoning their creations to train their AI models.

The AI companies have generally argued that the use of the material is sufficiently "transformative" to be considered "fair use" under copyright law.

One of the major cases to watch is The New York Times's lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, which has progressed further than many of the other cases. In January, a federal judge is scheduled to oversee a marathon day of oral arguments over whether the case is on firm enough legal ground to proceed to trial.

Elon Musk vs Sam Altman and OpenAI

In the past few years, OpenAI has become a tech behemoth, setting the pace for generative artificial intelligence technology.

The company is technically structured as a nonprofit that seeks to build artificial intelligence in a way that benefits all of humanity. However, under its leader Sam Altman, OpenAI has signed a lucrative deal with Microsoft, which hopes to harness the tech to drive its own growth.

Now OpenAI is trying to formally convert itself into a for-profit company, shedding the nonprofit label. Musk — who was involved in OpenAI's early stages and who runs a competitor, xAI — is trying to stop that from happening.

The case has been moving at a fast clip, with lawyers for Musk and OpenAI dropping legal filings that reveal internal emails and other records about the other. It's set to continue heating up in 2025 as OpenAI tries to become a corporation.

Eric Adams indictment

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused New York City Mayor Eric Adams of taking bribes from Turkey to fuel his political career — charges that he has strenuously denied. Adams hired Alex Spiro, a hard-charging lawyer best known for representing Musk, to fight the cases. The case is on the fast track and is expected to go to trial in April, before the city's Democratic primary.

DOJ's Apple antitrust lawsuit

The Justice Department sued Apple in March, accusing it of violating antitrust laws by illegally maintaining a smartphone monopoly. More than a dozen states have since joined the lawsuit against the tech giant, and the initial conference in the case will be held on February 27 in federal court in Newark, New Jersey.

The DOJ accuses Apple of making its rivals' products worse by selectively imposing contractual restrictions on developers and by withholding critical access points from them.

Apple does this, according to the Justice Department, by suppressing the development of cloud-streaming apps and services, worsening the quality of cross-platform messaging with rivals like Android, limiting the functionality of third-party smartwatches unless the owners keep buying iPhones, blocking the development of "super apps," and limiting functions on non-Apple wallet tap-to-pay.

Apple previously told Business Insider that if the lawsuit was successful, it could set a dangerous precedent by "empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people's technology."

"This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets," Apple said in a March 2024 statement to BI. "If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple — where hardware, software, and services intersect."

Live Nation Ticketmaster lawsuit

A little over a year after the historic Ticketmaster crash, which prevented Taylor Swift fans from purchasing Eras tour tickets, the Justice Department in May sued Live Nation, the website's parent company.

The DOJ accuses Live Nation of unlawfully dominating the live music market, stifling innovation, and exerting control over how fans can purchase tickets and where artists can perform. It seeks to break up the company.

A final pretrial conference is scheduled for February 12 in federal court in Manhattan, but the case isn't expected to go to trial until early 2026.

Live Nation previously told BI in a statement that the lawsuit would fail in court.

"The DOJ's lawsuit won't solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows," the company said in May.

Visa antitrust lawsuit

The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa in September, accusing the company of engaging in anticompetitive behavior with its US debit transactions. Initial hearings in the case are expected in January.

The lawsuit accuses the payment-processing giant of entering into contracts with potential competitors that prevent them from becoming actual competitors. By doing so, Visa is able to collect fees that it wouldn't be able to in a competitive market, the Justice Department alleges.

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, said Visa handled more than 60% of US debit transactions, earning the company more than $7 billion in fees a year.

In September, a lawyer for Visa told BI the lawsuit was "meritless."

"Today's lawsuit ignores the reality that Visa is just one of many competitors in a debit space that is growing, with entrants who are thriving," Julie Rottenberg said in a statement at the time.

Rudy Giuliani defamation case

This will be the fourth year for the court battle between Rudy Giuliani and Georgia election workers Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and Ruby Freeman.

The former Trump attorney and New York City mayor has owed Moss and Freeman $148 million since December 2023, after a DC judge found his repeated false accusations of election fraud subjected the mother-daughter pair to a barrage of racist death threats. The pair's lawyer complained in court recently that Giuliani has yet to turn over any assets beyond a handful of luxury watches, a Mercedes without a title, and a New York apartment without a current lease.

Giuliani now faces contempt of court for allegedly continuing to defame the pair on his nightly podcast and for what defense lawyers complain has been his heel-dragging in turning over assets and complying with subpoenas.

He is scheduled for a January 3 contempt hearing and a January 16 bench trial, both in federal court in Manhattan. The trial will determine if Giuliani must surrender his Palm Beach condo and three World Series rings.

• In 2020, Donald Trump pardoned cybersecurity executive Chris Wade for crimes that had been sealed.
• Unsealed documents show he was part of a sophisticated spam email operation busted by an informant.
• Prosecutors want to keep part of his case sealed — the reason behind that remains a mystery.

In August 2005, years before he was an executive at a cybersecurity company, Chris Wade was vacationing at a casino in Las Vegas, planning to meet an associate who was supposed to hand him an envelope containing $2,500 in cash.

Wade, who controlled tens of thousands of hacked computers at the time, had agreed to use his network to send emails promoting a stock pump-and-dump scheme. The cash was payment for his services.

But what Wade didn't know was that his associate was a government informant and that prosecutors would soon charge him with an array of cybercrimes, accusing him of using the hacked computers to commit fraud.

For nearly two decades, the charges against Wade would remain a secret. In an unusual move, the judge sealed the entire court docket, hiding all public records of Wade's involvement in the case.

While it's common for individual court documents to be sealed or partially redacted, Wade's case was different.

Wade pleaded guilty to all the charges against him in July 2006. However, no reference to the case appeared in public federal court databases — even after he was sentenced in 2011 to time served.

The very fact that Wade had a criminal past was a secret — until Donald Trump pardoned him.

That left many wondering what would account for the curious court-sanctioned secrecy surrounding the case. One explanation, legal analysts say, is that Wade could have become a government informant himself.

A pardon for a secret crime

Years after the hacking charges, Wade went legit.

In 2011, he launched iEmu, a company that grew a cult following among developers by allowing them to emulate iPhone apps on Windows, Mac, and Android devices. In 2017, he cofounded Corellium and is its chief technology officer.

Corellium has carved out a prominent place in the software market, creating sophisticated tools for cybersecurity researchers. It fought, and ultimately settled, a protracted legal battle against Apple, which alleged Corellium violated copyright law by creating a virtual version of iOS that researchers could test for security vulnerabilities. Another one of its cofounders helped the FBI unlock the iPhone used by one of the suspects in the 2015 San Bernardino mass shooting attack.

Trump granted Wade clemency near the end of 2020, with less than a month left in his first presidential term.

While Wade's case was sealed, the pardon effectively made it public.

But Wade's crimes, at the time, remained a mystery.

The White House's announcement said only that Wade "served two years' probation after pleading guilty to various cyber-crimes" and "has shown remorse and sought to make his community a safer place."

It also said the pardon was supported by Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, the former Marvel executive and a Mar-a-Lago member who has supported Trump's political campaigns; Mark Templeton, the former Citrix CEO who has since taken a seat on the board of Corellium; and "numerous current and former law-enforcement officials."

The pardon itself is not much clearer. It says Wade is granted "a full and unconditional pardon" for his conviction "in sealed Docket No. 06-cr-394" and notes that "the offenses of conviction and sentence are also under seal." The Justice Department's website still says his offenses were "sealed" and that his sentence was "unknown."

A representative for the DOJ pardon attorney's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

The pardon was announced in a White House press release along with pardons and commutations for more than 20 other people, many of whom were businessmen charged with tax-related offenses. The list included Trump's political allies Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, who were criminally charged in the Mueller investigation, and Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, who Trump has since selected as his ambassador to France for his coming second term.

Wade, through his attorney Paul Kreiger, declined to comment.

In October, following legal action by The New York Times, a judge unsealed documents containing the charges against Wade and details about his sentence.

The criminal complaint said that Wade was arrested with the help of a confidential government informant who was assisting a unit in the US Secret Service's New York field office investigating a spam email scheme.

The informant, whose identity remains unknown, had been convicted of unrelated cyber-fraud charges and was trying to leverage his connections in the hacking world to help law enforcement with the hope of receiving a lighter sentence, the complaint said.

The informant had helped authorities catch two other men, Adam Vitale and Todd Moeller. They had bypassed AOL's spam filters and blasted out tens of thousands of emails a day promoting obscure stocks, which Vitale and Moeller then dumped for profit.

Vitale used "SpamsMVP" as one of his instant message nicknames. Moeller bragged that he was making $40,000 a month by selling the stock. Both pleaded guilty to the charges against them.

Wade was the "proxy guy" in the spam email operation. Wade routed the emails through the computers of hundreds of AOL users, who were hacked and unwittingly used to transmit spam, making them look legit to AOL's filters. While he was waiting on the $2,500 payment from the informant, Wade bragged that he was able to control a "botnet" of 20,000 computers to launder spam emails, the court documents said.

The informant tried to get in on the operation. He also cut a side deal with Wade at the expected price of $2,500 a week to take advantage of his botnet. Wade took Western Union wire transfers or cash, the documents said.

The informant didn't actually bring the cash to Wade at that Las Vegas casino. But he'd collected enough evidence for the Secret Service to bring criminal charges. According to the charging document, AOL determined that Wade, Moeller, and Vitale spammed 1,277,401 different AOL email addresses.

'You're not supposed to have a case that never existed'

In January, a lawyer for The New York Times asked a federal judge to unseal the case, noting the bizarre circumstances of the "blanket sealing."

"The presidential pardon power is virtually unchecked. As a result, the public's need to know how the power is being used and who is benefiting is at its pinnacle," David E. McCraw, the lawyer for the Times, wrote.

The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Wade, agreed to unseal certain key documents.

But other ones, prosecutors said, should remain secret. The reasons for keeping them sealed have also been withheld from the public record, with the Justice Department arguing that "would, in effect, risk disclosing the very information that warrants ongoing protection."

Wade's lawyers, in arguments that remain sealed, have also asked the judge to keep certain filings private.

It remains to be seen whether more court documents from Wade's criminal case will become public in the future. The Times has not published a story on Wade and his pardon in the months since the documents were unsealed. The judge's deadline for additional unsealing requests has passed. A representative for the Times declined to comment.

While Moeller and Vitale were charged as codefendants in 2006, prosecutors severed Wade's case from theirs and sealed it.

Prosecutors may agree to seal a case when a defendant cooperates and prosecutors want to keep the relationship a secret.

"The government will want to conceal the entire thing because they don't want other related bad guys to know that this investigation is ongoing," said John Kucera, a former federal prosecutor who investigated complex financial crimes and now works as a defense attorney at Boies Schiller Flexner.

But even when there's a secret cooperator, the court docket normally becomes public once the defendant is sentenced. That didn't happen in Wade's case.

The yearslong secrecy across multiple administrations — and the fact that the Justice Department still wants to keep portions of the case sealed — is unusual. One possible explanation, said Dan Boyle, a former federal prosecutor and US military intelligence professional, is that Wade helped the government on some kind of sensitive matter.

Boyle told BI that sealing the case indefinitely could indicate that the Justice Department didn't want anyone to know Wade had interacted with law enforcement.

"You're not supposed to have a case that never existed," said Boyle, also a Boies Schiller Flexner defense lawyer. "It happens, but it's an extraordinary circumstance."

Jason Brown, the Secret Service agent who wrote the criminal complaint against Wade, declined to answer questions about the case beyond what is available in public court records, citing laws regarding grand jury secrecy. Representatives for the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York didn't respond to a request for comment.

Thomas G.A. Brown, who later oversaw the office's unit investigating complex fraud and cybercrime, was the prosecutor in the Wade, Vitale, and Moeller investigations. Court records show he was involved in numerous high-profile cases, including the prosecution of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, the leadership of the hacking group LulzSec, and numerous digital currency cases. (Trump has vowed to commute Ulbricht's sentence on "day one" of his second term.)

Brown, who left the Justice Department in 2014, didn't respond to requests for comment.

Wade's pardon could make it easier for Corellium to seek contracts with government agencies and security companies, Adam Scott Wandt, an associate professor of technology at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice, told BI. Without a pardon, Wade would likely have difficulty obtaining security clearance or getting approval for funding from federal agencies, he said. And with the case fully sealed, Corellium may have been in a tight spot if it was asked to disclose whether its executives had criminal records.

Wandt also said the pardon would make disclosures less awkward if Corellium seeks an initial public offering in the future.

"If they're going to go public at some point, they'd have to disclose a lot about their C-suite personnel, about their leadership," Wandt said. "They might want to pardon him so they don't have to disclose that a former felon is their CTO."

Considering the success of Corellium and the technical sophistication required to run the spamming operation two decades ago, Wade may have had skills the FBI found useful.

"He probably has a lot of techniques that became useful to the bureau, and maybe that's how he worked his time off," Boyle said.

• An appeals court upheld a jury verdict finding Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll.
• He owes her $5 million in damages for sexual abuse and defamation — but plans to keep appealing.
• Trump is also appealing a separate jury verdict for an additional $83.3 million in defamation damages.

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a verdict finding Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, starting a 30-day clock for her to receive the $5 million jury award, plus interest.

In an exhaustive, 77-page opinion, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected all of the legal arguments brought by Trump in seeking to overturn the May 2023 trial verdict.

But Carroll, now 81 years old, shouldn't hold her breath. A spokesperson for Trump told Business Insider the president-elect plans to keep appealing the verdict.

The appeal could keep the cash frozen well into next year, at least, legal experts told BI.

In the year and a half since the jury verdict, the $5 million Trump owes Carroll — plus $500,000 to cover interest — has been sitting in an interest-bearing bank account controlled by the federal trial court.

If Trump does not file a further appeal in the next 30 days, the court will automatically transfer that $5.5 million and any further interest directly to Carroll and her attorneys, said Nick Newton, a former president of the National Association of Surety Bond Producers.

"Both E. Jean Carroll and I are gratified by today's decision," Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan told Business Insider in a statement. "We thank the Second Circuit for its careful consideration of the parties' arguments."

A spokesperson for Trump called Carroll's claims a "hoax" and said he would continue to appeal.

"The American People have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate, and they demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll Hoax, which will continue to be appealed," Steven Cheung told BI in an email. "We look forward to uniting our country in the new administration as President Trump makes America great again."

Trump's options for further appeals are two-fold, according to Michel Paradis, who teaches constitutional law at Columbia Law School. The funds would remain frozen until the appeals are exhausted, meaning that Carroll would need to wait longer before getting any of the jury's awards.

The president-elect can first seek an en banc review, meaning a review of Monday's three-judge decision by all 13 active judges on the Second Circuit, plus Senior Judge Denny Chin, Paradis said.

After that option, Trump could take his appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Winning — or even being considered — for en banc is a high bar, Paradis said. Trump would have to explain to the full Second Circuit why the issues are so important, and the three-judge panel's decision is so profoundly wrong that it needs to be overturned.

"In a case like this, it could take a few months" for the full panel to consider Trump's petition and any response they allow from Carroll's side, and then vote on whether to hear the case, he said.

"In this appeal, there were only basic legal questions in dispute, meaning how the law was applied, and the three-judge panel's review was limited to looking for an abuse of discretion," Paridis said.

Trump will seek review from the US Supreme Court next, Paradis predicted. The president-elect selected three of the nine justices in his first term. He could place more justices on the bench by the time oral arguments would take place.

The president-elect would first have to ask the high court to hear his appeal, and that process could keep the Carroll judgment frozen well into next year, he said.

"SCOTUS would likely not decide to hear the case until the end of next September at the earliest," he said.

It's not clear who will be on Trump's legal team if he continues to appeal the case.

John Sauer, who presented the oral argument before the Second Circuit, was designated by Trump to serve as the Justice Department Solicitor General in his next presidential term. Other attorneys who worked on the case, including Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, and Alina Habba, are set to serve other posts in the Justice Department or the White House.

Monday's decision is for one of two separate civil lawsuits E. Jean Carroll brought against Trump.

The second trial took place in January 2024, and concerned additional defamation damages over Trump disparaging Carroll and calling her a liar.

The jury in that case awarded Carroll $83.3 million. Trump is appealing that case, too, with a process that is running on a separate track.

Monday's appellate court decision largely focused on whether it was appropriate for US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, the trial judge, to allow certain types of evidence to be seen by the jurors who held Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll.

Trump's lawyers argued Kaplan should not have shown jurors the "Access Hollywood" tape, where Trump bragged about grabbing women by the genitals.

"The jury could have reasonably concluded from those statements that, in the past, Mr. Trump had kissed women without their consent and then proceeded to touch their genitalia," they wrote.

Trump's attorneys had also argued it was inappropriate to allow testimony from Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds, two other women who had accused Trump of sexual misconduct. The Second Circuit judges agreed with Kaplan, ruling that their stories helped establish a pattern of conduct from Trump.

"The jury could reasonably infer from Ms. Stoynoff's testimony and the Access Hollywood tape that Mr. Trump engaged in similar conduct with other women — a pattern of abrupt, nonconsensual, and physical advances on women he barely knew," the judges wrote.

• Donald Trump urged Wayne Gretzky to run for prime minister of Canada.
• One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's coalition partners may force him out of the position.
• Gretzky visited Mar-a-Lago and wore a MAGA hat after Trump's November electoral victory.

In a Christmas Day message, past and future president Donald Trump said he urged Wayne Gretzky to run for prime minister of Canada.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that he talked with the legendary hockey player and Canadian icon, telling Gretzky he could easily win a national election.

He also said Gretzky could become "Governor of Canada" — an apparent reference to his joke that the northern neighbor could become the 51st state in the United States of America.

"I just left Wayne Gretzky, 'The Great One' as he is known in Ice Hockey circles," Trump wrote in a Wednesday afternoon Truth Social post. "I said, 'Wayne, why don't you run for Prime Minister of Canada, soon to be known as the Governor of Canada - You would win easily, you wouldn't even have to campaign.'"

Gretzky wasn't interested in running, Trump said.

"He had no interest, but I think the people of Canada should start a DRAFT WAYNE GRETZKY Movement," Trump wrote. "It would be so much fun to watch!"

A representative for Gretzky didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

In his next presidential term, Trump has said that he would impose tariffs on imported goods from Canada that would make American importers pay 25% more.

Trump's account posted on Truth Social nearly 40 times on Wednesday, mostly articles from conservative media outlets supporting his policies. He also named Kevin Marino Cabrera, a Republican official in Florida who worked for Trump's 2020 campaign, as his choice for ambassador to Panama. Over the past week, Trump has threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal.

The president-elect's support for Gretzky — a dual US-Canadian citizen — comes as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could be on the brink of losing power.

Trudeau's Liberal Party remains in power through a coalition with the New Democratic Party in the country's parliament. Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party, said he would call for a "no confidence" vote in January, costing the Liberals their majority and triggering a new election. Canada is also scheduled to have a federal election in October 2025.

Gretzky and his family visited Mar-a-Lago shortly after Trump's November electoral victory. In one photo posted to Instagram by a Trump Organization executive, Gretzky is wearing a white-and-gold "Make America Great Again" cap.

In the past, Gretzky has occasionally supported members of Canada's Conservative party, which polls show is leading Trudeau's Liberal party.

• A new lawsuit filed Tuesday by publicist Stephanie Jones alleges that Justin Baldoni and his PR reps tried to smear Blake Lively.
• Jones, a former employer of Baldoni's PR rep Jennifer Abel, alleges in the suit that Abel ran an operation in secret while she was working for Jones.
• Abel disparaged Jones and tried to steal clients for a competing firm, the lawsuit alleges.

A publicist who previously represented Justin Baldoni says one of her former employees orchestrated a smear campaign against Blake Lively without the public relations firm's knowledge — and then stole Baldoni and other celebrities as clients.

In a civil lawsuit filed in Manhattan state court Tuesday, Stephanie Jones said the ex-employee, Jennifer Abel, ran a secret operation with Melissa Nathan, a communications professional with her own firm.

The lawsuit alleges that the goal was to "destroy" Lively, Baldoni's co-star in "It Ends With Us," to cover up Baldoni's own misconduct on set.

"Their plan was covert, deliberately concealed from Jones, and went far beyond the legitimate scope of Abel's employment," Tuesday's lawsuit says.

Abel and Nathan used the same tactics to wreck Jones's own reputation in order to siphon clients from her public relations company, Jonesworks, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit from Jones — a powerful Hollywood publicist who has represented Jeff Bezos, Tom Brady, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson — is the second legal salvo against Baldoni, Abel, and Nathan this past week.

On Friday, Lively filed a complaint against the same group with the California Civil Rights Department, a possible precursor to a lawsuit.

Lively alleges in the complaint that Baldoni — who also directed "It Ends With Us" — created a hostile workplace by frequently talking about pornography, adding sexually explicit scenes between their characters into the script, pressuring her to lose weight, and walking into her trailer unannounced while she was undressed and breastfeeding, among other offenses.

Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldini, Abel, Nathan, and their companies, previously called Lively's allegations "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious." Freedman didn't respond to Business Insider's request for comment Tuesday.

Lively's complaint — wielding numerous text messages and emails her lawyers obtained — also alleged Baldoni worked with Abel and Nathan on a sophisticated public relations campaign through manipulated social media activity and stories published in tabloids.

"You know we can bury anyone," Nathan wrote to Abel in a February text message included in Lively's complaint as they discussed how to propose the communications strategy to Baldoni.

Lively's complaint alleges the campaign on behalf of Baldoni unfolded in secret alongside the public relations campaign for the movie, which was released in theaters in August and grossed over $350 million worldwide.

Jones said in her lawsuit she fired Abel in August after she had "stolen more than 70 proprietary and sensitive business documents" as well as client information. Abel also tried to poach employees for a competing public relations firm, RWA Communications, the lawsuit alleges.

Nathan didn't respond to Business Insider's request for comment Tuesday.

In an email Tuesday, Abel provided a different account of how she left Jonesworks. She sent BI an email and text messages showing she submitted her resignation in July with plans to start her own public relations firm.

Jones's attorney Kristin Tahler said she filed the lawsuit "to stop defendants' continuing misconduct and for Steph to recover the reputation."

"For months, this group has gaslit and disparaged Stephanie Jones and her company for financial gain, to settle personal scores and most recently to distract from their disgraceful smearing of Blake Lively," Tahler, an attorney at Quinn, Emmanuel, said in a statement Tuesday.

Lively's complaint doesn't indicate how her lawyers obtained the purported campaign plan or the texts between Abel and Nathan.

Jones's lawsuit offers a possible explanation: It says Abel's company-issued phone from Jonesworks was forensically preserved and examined after Jonesworks received a subpoena. On the phone, "Abel and Nathan's covert take down and smear campaigns were revealed in black and white," Jones alleges.

"Jones discovered the breadth and intensity of Abel and Nathan's duplicity from these records, including that Abel was actively encouraging other Jonesworks clients and employees to leave Jonesworks while Abel was still employed there," Jones's lawsuit alleges.

On her way out the door from Jonesworks, Abel tried to turn Jones's clients against her so she and Nathan could steal them for her own firms, Jones's lawsuit says.

Jones's lawsuit alleges that, as part of a smear campaign, the two spoke with a reporter at Business Insider, which published an article in August about Jones and the workplace culture at Jonesworks.

While Abel waged an intense publicity campaign on Baldoni's behalf, text messages show she held him in "extremely low regard," Jones's lawsuit alleges.

"He may fire us because even if we put together an amazing campaign, it's not going to change the fact that he's so unlikable and unrealistic as a leading man," Abel wrote in one text message included in the lawsuit. "there's no chemistry with him and Blake."

• Luigi Mangione's lawyer said her client's criminal case was being politicized.
• She criticized NYC Mayor Eric Adams' presence at Mangione's perp walk from a Manhattan helipad.
• Mangione pleaded not guilty to both state and federal murder charges.

A lawyer representing Luigi Mangione said law enforcement was politicizing her client's arrest and prosecution, pointing to Mayor Eric Adams of New York City's attendance at Mangione's first perp walk in the state.

"Frankly, your honor, the mayor should know more than anyone of the presumption of innocence," the attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said at a Monday-morning hearing.

Mangione pleaded not guilty at the proceeding, which took place in the courtroom of Justice Gregory Carro of the New York Supreme Court, a trial judge in Manhattan's state-level criminal court.

He was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, following a five-day hunt for the person who killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk. At Monday's hearing, the Ivy League graduate looked polished, wearing a maroon sweater over a white collared shirt. His wrists were bound with heavy shackles as he walked into the courtroom.

Adams, alongside Commissioner Jessica Tisch of the New York Police Department, stood for dramatic photos at the Manhattan helipad where Mangione was flown in on Thursday.

A large group of police officers walked Mangione from the helicopter, making for images that went viral on social media.

"I wanted to look him in the eye to say that, 'You carried out this terrorist act in my city, the city that the people of New York love,' and I wanted to be there to show the symbolism of that," Adams later said.

A grand jury has indicted Adams on federal corruption charges alleging he took bribes from the Turkish government. He's pleaded not guilty.

"Frankly, I submit that he was trying to detract from those issues by making a spectacle of Mr. Mangione," Friedman Agnifilo said at Monday's hearing, according to the Courthouse News reporter Erik Uebelacker.

Mangione previously appeared in Manhattan federal court Thursday afternoon on charges brought by the US Justice Department. He has been in federal custody in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center.

The Manhattan district attorney's office accused Mangione of first-degree murder "in furtherance of terrorism."

Federal prosecutors brought additional murder charges that, if Mangione is convicted, are death-penalty-eligible.

The district attorney's case will go to trial first, the Justice Department announced. A trial date has not yet been set.

• Luigi Mangione is in New York to face both state and federal murder charges.
• His new federal indictment alleges he stalked and then killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
• Manhattan prosecutors say state charges will "proceed in parallel with any federal case."

Luigi Mangione appeared in federal court Thursday on new federal murder charges that could result in the death penalty or life in prison.

It was Mangione's first appearance in a Manhattan courtroom, this one crowded with press and federal staff, on charges in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He is expected to be arraigned on state murder charges in a courthouse one block away on Friday.

Mangione's voice was calm but firm as he answered the judge's questions.

"Mr. Mangione, do you understand what you have been accused of?" US Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker asked at one point before he entered his plea.

"Yes," he answered.

Edward Y. Kim, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, has yet to say if he will seek the death penalty or a life sentence for the most serious charge in the four-count indictment — murder through the use of a firearm.

One former federal prosecutor called the death penalty a "remote" possibility, given Mangione's youth, and the chance that he may have suffered a mental breakdown in the six months before the shooting.

"In New York's federal courts, it's uncommon for them to seek the death penalty, and I think probably more uncommon for juries to want to authorize it, even assuming that Mr. Mangione killed Mr. Thompson in the way the government is alleging," said Michael Bachner, now in private practice.

The other three federal counts against Mangione allege he possessed and used an illegal firearm, and that he traveled interstate — between Georgia and New York, in order to stalk and kill Thompson.

Mangione presented an orderly, if tense, appearance in the chilly 26th-floor courtroom.

He was clean-shaven and his bushy eyebrows neatly groomed. Mangione sat with his shoulders raised and held stiff and wore khaki pants and a navy quarter-zip sweater over a white collared button-down shirt.

His ankles were shackled together with thick chains beneath the table where he sat. He wore bright orange slip-on sneakers without shoelaces.

To either side of Mangione sat his lawyers, husband-wife legal team Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo. Both are veteran criminal attorneys and former prosecutors. Their firm, Agnifilo Intrater, LLC, also represents Sean "Diddy" Combs in his federal sex-trafficking case, scheduled to be tried in the same Manhattan courthouse in May.

After Parker read the charges aloud to him, Mangione's posture relaxed. He repeatedly raised his left hand to pat down the hair at the back and side of his head.

He crossed his arms and wore a skeptical expression on his face with his tongue poking out between his lips while Friedman Agnifilo demanded clarity on how different law enforcement agencies coordinated and would present evidence in the case.

Mangione's next court date was set for January 18. His lawyers did not apply for bail, though Friedman Agnifilo said in court that she may do so on a future date.

Earlier Thursday, in a Pennsylvania courtroom, Mangione abandoned his extradition fight and was whisked to New York in an NYPD aviation plane and, upon landing at a Long Island airport, via police chopper to a lower Manhattan heliport.

His arrival in federal court was greeted by dozens of reporters and a smattering of fans holding messages of support written on cardboard.

"Health over Wealth," read one.

Mangione has yet to be arraigned on his first murder case, announced Tuesday by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

He faces up to life in prison on that state indictment, which alleges he murdered Thompson as an act of terror — a first-degree felony, the highest state charge and penalty available.

In a press statement after Mangione's federal appearance, Kim said he expects the state case — announced by Bragg just two days prior — would proceed to trial first.

In court Thursday, Friedman Agnifilo called the dual prosecutions "highly unusual" and said the charges between the Manhattan district attorney's office and the federal US attorney's office seemed to contradict each other.

The district attorney's indictment alleges Mangione killed Thompson in furtherance of "terrorism" that affects a "population of people," she said. But the federal charges accuse Mangione of stalking Thompson as an individual, she said.

Police and prosecutors say Mangione killed Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel on December 4.

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a five-day manhunt, on local gun and false ID charges. A Manhattan grand jury later indicted on charges related to the killing itself, and the New York cases will take priority over the lesser charges in Pennsylvania.

While in jail in Pennsylvania, Mangione received 54 email messages and 87 pieces of mail, Maria Bivens, of the state Department of Corrections, told BI.

There were also 163 deposits made into Mangione's commissary account, Bivens said. Bivens declined to say how much money was deposited in total.

These accounts can be used to buy toiletries or additional food items in the jail's store.

• Luigi Mangione has been indicted in New York on a first-degree murder charge.
• Prosecutors say Mangione killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson "in furtherance of terrorism."
• Mangione's mother said killing Thompson was "something that she could see him doing," police said.

A Manhattan grand jury indicted Luigi Mangione on charges of first-degree murder, with prosecutors alleging he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson "in furtherance of terrorism."

Prosecutors have also accused Mangione of second-degree murder, as well as a slew of counts related to the possession of an illegal "ghost gun" made from 3D-printed parts.

Following a five-day manhunt, Mangione was arrested last week at a restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on gun and false ID charges.

Police say he killed Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel on December 4.

"This killing was intended to invoke terror," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, calling it a"brazen, targeted and premeditated shooting."

Prosecutors offered a detailed look at Mangione's movements Tuesday. They say he stayed at an Upper West Side hostel for more than a week, using a fake New Jersey ID, before carrying out the killing.

According to prosecutors, two of the shell casings for the bullets that killed Thompson had the words "DENY" and "DEPOSE" written on them. The word "DELAY" was written on a bullet found at the scene.

An arrest warrant previously obtained by Business Insider indicated that Mangione would be charged with second-degree murder along with four other charges related to illegal weapon possession. The first-degree murder charge reflects a more severe charge.

If Mangione, 26, is convicted of the first-degree murder charge, he could spend the rest of his life in prison without parole. The charge, with the intent to commit terrorism, refers to a killing that is "intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population" or "influence the policies of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion," according to the indictment.

Mangione has not yet entered a plea for any of the charges against him.

Even the minimum required sentence for first-degree murder, 25 to life, would mean Mangione would not see a parole officer until age 51.

The top charge could become a bargaining chip for Bragg, former Manhattan prosecutor Michael Bachner, who is now in private practice, told BI.

"Given the risk now of a maximum sentence of life without the possibility parole, that top terrorism count may induce the defendant to enter a plea, if one is offered," he said.

Jessica Tisch, the New York City police commissioner, lambasted the "ghoulish" online discourse valorizing Mangione for killing Thompson.

"Let me say this plainly — there is no heroism in what Luigi Mangione did," she said.

A Pennsylvania-based attorney for Mangione, an Ivy League graduate, has contested Mangione's extradition to Manhattan. At Tuesday's press conference, Bragg said he believed Mangione may change tack court proceedings Thursday and stop fighting extradition.

Over the weekend, Mangione hired Karen Friedman Agnifilo, an experienced New York-based criminal defense attorney who is married to and shares a law firm with Marc Agnifilo. Marc Agnifilo is representing Sean "Diddy" Combs in his criminal sex-trafficking case.

In an interview with CNN prior to taking on Mangione as a client, Friedman Agnifilio said the evidence was "overwhelming" that Mangione killed Thompson.

"It looks like to me there might be a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' defense that they're going to be thinking about because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did," she said.

Mangione left a robust online trail that went cold about six months before Thompson's killing. His mother filed a missing persons report in San Francisco in November, saying he had disappeared.

At Tuesday's press conference, Joe Kenny, the New York Police Department's chief of detectives, said the FBI contacted Mangione's mother on December 7, following a tip.

"She didn't indicate that it was her son in the photograph, but she said it might be something that she could see him doing," Kenny said.

• Luigi Mangione was arrested in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
• Rewards from NYPD Crime Stoppers and the FBI depend on Mangione's conviction, which may take time.
• The 911 caller and the restaurant patron who recognized Mangione may both be eligible.

After a densely eyebrowed man was caught on camera shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, authorities put a bounty on his head.

The New York Police Department's Crime Stoppers program offered a $10,000 reward for information that could lead to the killer's arrest or conviction. The Federal Bureau of Investigation followed suit, touting a $50,000 reward.

But the tipster who called 911 on Luigi Mangione needs Mangione, who was arrested Monday and accused of the killing, to be convicted before they get the money.

An ordinary Crime Stoppers reward is under $3,500. In those cases, tipsters can be paid upon arrest and indictment.

But when a reward is raised to exceed that amount, the money isn't disbursed until a conviction, either at trial or through a guilty plea, according to a spokesperson for the New York City Police Foundation, which administers the funds.

Officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, arrested Mangione at a McDonald's restaurant, on charges that he lied about his identity and illegally carried a ghost gun police said was assembled from 3D-printed parts.

Mangione will likely be extradited to New York, where a warrant indicates he will be charged with murder, among other crimes. Mangione has not made any public statements since his arrest and has not yet entered a plea for the charges against him.

Thomas Dickey, an Altoona-based defense attorney representing Mangione on his Pennsylvania charges, didn't immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider.

According to New York Police Department officials, the 911 caller was a fast-food worker who was tipped off about Mangione by a restaurant patron.

Even though that person didn't call Crime Stoppers directly, they can still potentially receive the reward, according to the foundation spokesperson.

"The individual in Pennsylvania, who called in a tip, is eligible to receive the reward," the spokesperson told Business Insider.

More than one person could collect rewards

Crime Stoppers doesn't always pay out the maximum amount of their rewards. The total is determined by a board overseen by the foundation, which acts upon the recommendation of the commanding officer of the NYPD's Crime Stoppers unit.

Given the high profile of Thompson's killing, it's likely the tipster will be eligible for the full amount, Joe Giacalone, a former New York police officer who oversaw the unit, said.

"Since this was a national manhunt, I would assume they would ask for the highest amount of award," said Giacalone, now an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The board would also decide whether the reward would go to either the restaurant patron, who first apparently recognized Mangione, or the employee who called 911, or both. Those details "would be ironed out between Crime Stoppers and the police foundation," the foundation spokesperson said.

"In the past, on other cases, sometimes they both get their reward," the spokesperson said. "Sometimes the reward is split half-and-half."

It's less clear whether the caller can get a piece of the FBI's $50,000 award anytime soon.

The language on the FBI poster offered money for "information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for this crime," also indicating it wouldn't pay out unless a conviction is reached.

An FBI representative said tips from the public are among the agency's "best tools in preventing, detecting, and deterring crime." It did not answer questions about the Mangione tipster or its reward process.

"The FBI maintains longstanding policy not to confirm the identity of individuals who assist the FBI by providing tips or information," the representative said in an email. "Additionally, the FBI will not comment on whether reward money has been paid and to whom. The FBI takes this position for privacy protection, and to ensure the public's continued cooperation and incentivization with any future assistance."

Reward funds can help ease the financial burden of potential informants, whose lives may be transformed if they become cooperating witnesses or ultimately testify at trial. Former prosecutor Opher Shweiki said they were helpful in capturing and building the case against Ahmed Abu Khatallah, who was involved in the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack. The case was featured as one of the "Success Stories" from Rewards for Justice, a law enforcement program that works with the FBI to offer rewards.

"They're sometimes upending their lives," said Shweiki, now a national security partner at Akin Gump. "And so there's a lot that goes into that equation."

A conviction in the Thompson killing could take a long time if it happens at all. As Business Insider's Laura Italiano reported, a savvy lawyer could delay the Pennsylvania-to-New York extradition for years — and that would be before Mangione would be arraigned on murder charges, kicking off the formal process for the criminal case.

Mangione's folk hero status has led to a cascade of online threats against the employee who called 911, whose name has not been publicly disclosed. The fast food restaurant location where Mangione was arrested has beefed up security, Newsweek reported.

The ordinary NYPD Crime Stoppers procedure is designed to be completely anonymous to protect tipsters. Callers are given ID numbers, and their identities are not even known to police officers — even when they collect the reward.

Given the threats and heightened emotions surrounding the case, Giacalone said NYPD officials were wrong to disclose identifying information about the tipsters, including the restaurant where the call was made.

A spokesperson for the NYPD didn't immediately return a request for comment on the disclosure.

"It was a mistake," Giacalone said. "Because, if you're watching what people are saying online about this person, they're in danger. And so is their family."

For years before he was accused of killing the CEO of one of America's largest health-insurance companies, Luigi Mangione suffered from debilitating pain that doctors didn't seem able to fix.

He detailed the pain, and what he felt to be the healthcare system's inadequate response, in dozens of posts on Reddit between 2018 and 2024.

None of them, though, mention UnitedHealthcare or its CEO, Brian Thompson, whom he's now accused of killing. And none of the posts blame UnitedHealthcare — or Thompson — for his health issues. The only insurer mentioned is Blue Cross Blue Shield, in a brief post describing how it covered a medical test.

But his posts paint a portrait of someone whose pain and recovery led him to put "my life on hold in my 20s." And the experience appears to represent a significant — and excruciating — engagement with the American healthcare system. Like most young Americans, if Mangione was covered by his parents' health-insurance plan, he likely would have aged out when he turned 26 in May, under rules set by the Affordable Care Act.

In handwritten notes from 2019 reviewed by Business Insider, Mangione wrote that he had spondylolisthesis — severe slippage of parts of the spine due to joint deterioration.

In 2022, he described "near-constant burning/twitching in both ankles/calves." By 2023, he wrote on Reddit, he'd been experiencing "back and genital pain" on and off for a year, including numbness in his groin. (Details shared by the Reddit account match biographical details about Mangione sourced from public documents.)

He underwent surgery later that year. An X-ray image Mangione posted on social media depicted a spinal fusion, with rods and screws reinforcing the position of his bones. At first, he appeared jubilant — his pain was gone. But by June this year, he was castigating doctors as "basically worthless" on X.

Public records, social-media posts, and interviews indicate that Mangione cut off contact with family and friends earlier this year. Months later, police say Mangione murdered Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk, wielding a gun assembled from 3D printed parts.

The scion of a prominent Baltimore family, Mangione was educated at elite schools. Friends say they're now hard-pressed to recognize the kind, unassuming, and whip-smart person they know.

A classmate who led a student group at the University of Pennsylvania with Mangione in 2016 and 2017 said she recalled him as humble, helpful, and immensely driven. She asked not to be named given the intense focus on Mangione, but BI has confirmed her identity.

"I would set my sister or friend up with him," she said. "Just knowing his personality, I would completely trust him. Even knowing what I know now, if he 100% did it, I would feel completely safe being alone in a room with him."

A privileged youth

Mangione grew up in Towson, Maryland, about 10 miles outside Baltimore. His grandfather, Nick Mangione Sr., was a self-made multimillionaire, The Baltimore Banner reported. The elder Mangione, who died in 2008, owned and operated a sprawling portfolio of country clubs, nursing homes, and local radio stations. The younger Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren, part of a large family whose ranks also include a Maryland lawmaker.

Mangione's parents and immediate family did not respond to requests for comment.

Thomas J. Maronick Jr., an attorney and longtime host at one of the family's radio stations, told BI that the family was "very influential" in the local community, which was reeling from the news of Mangione's arrest.

"When you think of the Mangione family, you think of an esteemed family that has done a lot for the community," Maronick said on a phone call. "When I first heard the name, I thought it had to be a different family. It was very out of character for anything I've ever known about the family."

Mangione appeared well positioned to carry on the family's name.

He attended the Gilman School, a prestigious Baltimore-area all-boys school where tuition runs over $37,000 a year. There, he cofounded AppRoar Studios, a company that released a phone game; was in the school's robotics club; and graduated as valedictorian of the class of 2016.

Mangione was "very into sports" and "very social," a high-school classmate told BI. The classmate asked not to be named, but BI has verified their identity. "He was easily one of the smartest in our class. I never would have thought he would have been a part of this," the classmate added.

He went on to the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in four years with both a bachelor's and a master's degree in computer science, a university spokesperson said. He cofounded a video-game-design club and was inducted into the computer-engineering department's Eta Kappa Nu society for students at the top of their class, according to blog posts and the society's website.

He appeared active in his fraternity, photos posted on Instagram show.

Still, his health appeared to drag him down. In posts on Reddit, he described experiencing "brain fog." His "cognitive decline" started after he contracted Lyme disease at 13, he wrote, and worsened after his "very tame" but sleepless fraternity initiation. The fraternity did not respond to a request for comment.

He considered dropping out of college, he wrote, and felt that his condition restricted him to "what feels like 10% of a college experience."

"My symptoms were very minor at first and I was able to excel in high school, but the symptoms worsened exponentially last year," he wrote in 2018. "It's absolutely brutal to have such a life-halting issue."

In 2019, Mangione spent three months as a counselor for a Stanford summer program for high schoolers. He left a positive impression on the students, one of them said in posts on Instagram.

After college, he got a job as a data engineer at TrueCar, an online vehicle-purchase platform, and was regularly promoted, according to his LinkedIn profile and a former colleague.

By early 2022, he had moved to a coliving space in Hawaii called Surfbreak, according to photos posted on Instagram. R.J. Martin, the founder of Surfbreak, told Honolulu Civil Beat that Mangione founded a book club at the residence. On Martin's suggestion, one of the books discussed by the club was the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's manifesto, Martin said.

Kaczynski, a Harvard-trained mathematician, lived in the wilderness and conducted a 17-year mail-bombing campaign against people he blamed for advancing technology at the expense of the natural environment.

Mangione gave the book four out of five stars on his Goodreads account.

"While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary," Mangione wrote in his review of the book.

The book club dissolved shortly thereafter, Martin told Civil Beat, amid discomfort with the manifesto.

Mangione detailed his back-pain journey on social media

In Hawaii, Mangione experienced another health setback. He'd had mild back pain since he was a child, but while surfing in early 2022, he "experienced sciatica for the first time," he wrote on Reddit. "A few weeks later I slipped on a piece of paper and my right glute locked and right leg shut down for a week. Couldn't support any weight on it."

Mangione, writing under the username Mister_Cactus, was a frequent poster in the spondylolisthesis subreddit. He exchanged notes with other people dealing with the condition and advised one poster how to persuade medical professionals to take symptoms seriously in the face of some doctors whose perspectives he decried as "nonsense."

"Tell them you are 'unable to work'/do your job. We live in a capitalist society," he wrote. "I've found that the medical industry responds to these key words far more urgently than you describing unbearable pain and how it's impacting your quality of life."

Martin told Honolulu Civil Beat that Mangione struggled with back pain throughout his time living at Surfbreak in 2022. In a separate interview, with The New York Times, Martin said that Mangione told him the lower vertebrae of his spine were nearly "a half-inch off" and had impeded his romantic life.

But by the next year, Mangione wrote that surgery had helped resolve his pain, at least for a time.

In one post, dated October 2023, he said back-fusion surgery had been "a success." After a week, he had no use for pain medication, he wrote.

"The surgery wasn't nearly as scary as I made it out to be in my head, and I knew it was the right decision within a week, and that I won't have to bother with injections or future surgery for many years," he wrote.

Mangione went dark earlier this year

In 2023, Mangione stopped working at TrueCar. The company laid off more than 100 employees that year. BI was unable to confirm the circumstances under which he left the company.

He appeared to spend early 2024 traveling around Asia, according to Reddit posts. In April, he emailed the author of a Substack he followed to say he would be in Japan through the beginning of May, according to a screenshot of the email the blogger shared on X.

His final Reddit post, in May, was to the Kaczynski subreddit; he shared a video lambasting Chinese social-media culture. On X, his final posts, on July 8, revealed a disenchantment with both the Democratic and the Republican political parties and support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The previous month, he'd reposted another user's skepticism with doctors.

"My experience with the medical profession — and yours is probably similar — is that doctors are basically worthless unless you carefully manage them, and 2/3 of them are worthless even in that case," the post said.

Afterward, both accounts went dark.

Maronick, the family friend, told BI that there had "been some rumblings" that Mangione hadn't been in touch with his family in "quite some time."

In July, an apparent friend posted on X suggesting that Mangione hadn't responded to messages in months.

"You made commitments to me for my wedding and if you can't honor them I need to know so I can plan accordingly," the user wrote to Mangione. (The user could not be reached for comment.)

In recent months, one of Mangione's cousins began reaching out to Mangione's friends to ask whether anyone had heard from him, his high-school classmate told BI. The classmate texted Mangione but never heard back.

Mangione's mother filed a missing-persons report in San Francisco on November 18, writing that she hadn't seen her son since July, according to the San Francisco Standard. In a statement released on Monday, a group of Mangione's cousins wrote they were "shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest."

"We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved," the statement said.

Thompson was shot and killed on December 4 ahead of an annual investors meeting for UnitedHealth Group. Police say the bullet casings found on the scene had the words "delay," "deny," and "depose" written on them — which some have taken to be a reference to a book, "Delay, Deny, Defend," which details how insurance companies avoid paying medical bills.

Pennsylvania police, acting on a call from a McDonald's employee, found Mangione eating at a franchise location in Altoona. They say he had in his backpack a gun and a handwritten document expressing "ill will toward corporate America," with the phrase "these parasites had it coming."

Police arrested Mangione on forgery and gun charges. He is fighting extradition to New York, where he is expected to be charged with second-degree murder, a warrant obtained by BI shows. He has not formally entered a plea.

Thomas Dickey, an attorney representing Mangione, said in an interview on Tuesday that he had not seen "any evidence yet" that would implicate Mangione.

"I don't even know if this is him or whatever," he said. "So we're going to test those waters and give the government a chance to bring some evidence forward." Dickey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mangione's high-school classmate said that nobody they knew recognized Mangione from the photos police released before his arrest. After law enforcement named Mangione as a suspect, though, "the eyebrows made sense," the classmate said.

At his initial court appearance Monday, a judge asked Mangione whether he was in touch with his family, multiple reports from outlets present at the arraignment said.

"Until recently," he responded.

Ana Altchek, Laura Italiano, and Natalie Musumeci contributed reporting.

• Jay-Z was named in an amended complaint to a lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs, filed in October.
• The filing accuses Jay-Z and Combs of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000.
• Experts said that Jay-Z's response could have been stronger if it included an explicit denial of the claims.

Jay-Z's response to the rape accusations against him is missing something, according to one crisis-PR expert.

The "99 Problems" singer — whose real name is Shawn Carter — was accused in a civil lawsuit Sunday of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party alongside Sean "Diddy" Combs in 2000.

Carter responded to the "heinous" allegations hours later in a statement posted on his company Roc Nation's X account, calling the accuser's attorney, Tony Buzzbee, "deplorable" and saying he engaged in "a blackmail attempt."

"Whoever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?" the statement reads, in part. "These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case."

Still, the statement doesn't include "a flat unmistakable denial that he'd ever engaged in behavior like that in this case or otherwise," said Evan Nierman, the CEO of crisis-PR firm Red Banyan.

"I think Jay-Z was strong in pointing out the heinous nature of the crimes and that he views them as unconscionable," Nierman said. "But I would've liked to have seen a little bit more of a flat denial."

The allegations against Carter stem from one of the slew of civil sexual assault lawsuits filed against Combs, who's in a Brooklyn jail while awaiting trial on separate criminal sex trafficking charges. Combs has denied the accusations against him.

In the original lawsuit, filed in October, the anonymous Jane Doe plaintiff from Alabama accused Combs of raping her at a party in New York City as two other unnamed celebrities watched. The stars were only identified in the civil lawsuit as "Celebrity A" and "Celebrity B."

The updated lawsuit filed Sunday identifies Carter as "Celebrity A."

The other celebrity was described as a "female" but has otherwise not been identified in court documents.

Attorneys for Carter and Combs did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. A day after Carter's statement was published, his lawyer, Alex Spiro, more forcefully denied the allegations in a court filing.

"For the avoidance of doubt, Mr. Carter is entirely innocent," he wrote. "This is a shakedown."

A PR expert says Jay-Z's statement had 'bravado'

In his social media statement, Carter took aim at Buzbee, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff, and said that his lawyer "received a blackmail attempt" to pressure him into settling out of court. He has separately filed an extortion lawsuit against Buzzbee.

Buzbee told Business Insider that he sent a letter to Carter requesting that Carter and the plaintiff mediate before Sunday's filing.

The amended complaint said Carter responded to the letter by filing a lawsuit and "orchestrating a conspiracy of harassment, bullying, and intimidation" to silence the accuser from naming him.

Camron Dowlatshahi, a partner at Los Angeles-based Mills Sadat Dowlat LLP, told Business Insider that the back-and-forth negotiations referenced by Carter are typical, "especially in a case involving a high-profile individual."

What caught peoples' attention was the more casual tone of Jay-Z's statement, which includes informally styled words in all caps and a sentence that ends with two exclamation points.

"He infused it with the kind of bravado that he's known for," Nierman told Business Insider. By reiterating his rough upbringing — "I'm a young man who made it out of the project of Brooklyn" — Nierman added that he's "saying, 'You misjudged me by trying to play with me the way you deal with other people.'"

Despite the informal tone, Dowlatshahi said it's highly likely that the statement was crafted with lawyers and publicists.

"I thought it was unorthodox but important to come from him," Dowlatshahi told Business Insider. "It personalizes everything that he's going through instead of being defensive."

Carter's statement said his accuser's lawyer should "file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!" Still, only prosecutors representing the government, not individual accusers, can file criminal indictments.

Damian Williams, the US Attorney overseeing the criminal case against Combs in Manhattan, told Business Insider in October that the "investigation is very active and ongoing" when asked whether additional people would be charged.

Nierman and Dowlatshahi said it was nonetheless smart for Carter to point out that he was not charged with a crime.

"Something involving essentially a rape of a 13-year-old is not something that you have an afterthought about and amend your complaint about," Dowlatshahi said. "It's something that's at the forefront of a case, and typically a criminal case."

Experts don't think the allegations will tarnish Jay-Z's reputation if it's an isolated incident

Nierman and Dowlatshahi think Jay-Z is too rich and powerful for his reputation to ultimately be damaged by the suit.

He's "too big to cancel, and his brand is too strong to be destroyed by a civil lawsuit," Nierman said.

Dowlatshahi agreed. "Right now, this is a pretty contained isolated thing."

If more allegations against Carter surface or he faces criminal charges, indictments, or arrests, it could be career-ending.

"This is a civil lawsuit being filed by an attorney who's been very aggressive about his demand letters and going after celebs in the interest of securing financial settlements for his client," Nierman said. "So I don't see this as creating a permanent stain on Jay-Z's brand."

Nierman and Dowlatshahi said that Carter's mention of the allegations' impact on conversations with his kids, whom he shares with Beyoncé, also humanized him outside his celebrity persona.

Nierman said that Carter made his response "personal" by directly questioning Buzbee's integrity and values. "When you come out of the gates with such a strong statement like what Jay-Z made, and you make it so personal, both in his defense of himself and his attack on his accuser, he's already set," Nierman said. "It's going to be very hard to come back from that. So I expect him to be extremely aggressive in defending his reputation."

On Monday, Carter's lawyer filed a flurry of motions in federal court to dismiss the case or disclose the accuser's identity in the civil lawsuit.

"These claims are not about justice for victims. Nor are they about giving victims of sexual violence a voice," Carter's attorney Alex Spiro wrote in a filing. "Instead, they are merely the next chapter in Attorney Buzbee's sprawling extortion saga — a saga whose aim is base and measured in dollars."

Spiro didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Dowlatshahi said this is a common next step as Carter's team explores every possible option to defeat the claims. In Nierman's view, the aggressive strategy is working in the court of public opinion.

"Jay-Z is not going to be defined by these allegations," Nierman said. "I don't think that this is even going to be a footnote to his obituary."

• Luigi Mangione has been charged with murder in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's killing.
• Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy family, left an online trail before his arrest.
• He founded an app, talked about AI on X, and read the Unabomber Manifesto.

Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate charged with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has a vast online trail.

Police arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania on December 9. He initially faced local gun and forgery charges. He's expected to be extradited to New York.

New York court documents show that in addition to one count of murder, he also faces two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm.

Here's what to know about Mangione.

Mangione attended elite schools

Mangione graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020.

He achieved a Bachelor of Science in engineering with a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics. He also received a Master of Science in engineering the same year with a major in computer and information science, a university spokesperson told Business Insider.

Before that, he attended Gilman School, an elite all-boys preparatory school in Baltimore. His yearbook entry, obtained by BI, says he was involved in robotics and Model United Nations.

In his valedictorian speech, Mangione praised classmates for "challenging the world" and thanked parents for sending their children to the fee-paying school, which he described as "far from a small financial investment."

He favorably reviewed the Unabomber Manifesto

On Goodreads, Mangione reviewed Ted Kaczynski's "Industrial Society and Its Future" book, also known as The Unabomber Manifesto, in early 2024. He gave it four out of five stars.

"He was a violent individual — rightfully imprisoned — who maimed innocent people," Mangione wrote. "While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary."

Mangione's review of the manifesto also quoted another online comment about the book, which appears to have originated on Reddit, praising the use of violence "when all other forms of communication fail."

"'Violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators,'" Mangione quoted.

He founded an app and worked in tech

In 2015, while in high school, Mangione founded a company called AppRoar Studios. AppRoar released an iPhone game called "Pivot Plane" that's no longer available, but a reviewer in 2015 said it was "a fun little arcade game brought to you by 3 high school juniors."

He lived in a co-living space in Hawaii as recently as 2023.

He posed for photos indicating he participated in Greek life at the University of Pennsylvania.

The fraternity chapter represented in his photos couldn't be reached for comment.

A blog post on the University of Pennsylvania's website that was removed on December 9 said he cofounded a video game design club there.

Stephen Lane, a professor of video game design at the Ivy League university who didn't advise the club, told BI that "the fact he took the initiative and started something from nothing, that means at least in the context of Penn, that's a pretty good thing." He added, however, that Thompson's shooting was "obviously not a good thing."

Mangione's LinkedIn page says he worked as a data engineer at the vehicle shopping company TrueCar starting in 2020.

A TrueCar spokesperson told BI that Mangione hadn't worked for the company since 2023.

Online breadcrumbs and roommate say he dealt with back pain

At the top of Mangione's profile on X — formerly Twitter — is a triptych of three images: a photo of himself, smiling, shirtless on a mountain ridge; a Pokémon; and an X-ray with four pins or screws visible in the lower back.

The Pokémon featured in his cover image is Breloom, which has special healing abilities in the games.

Some of the books reviewed on Mangione's Goodreads account are related to health and healing back pain, including "Back Mechanic: The Secrets to a Healthy Spine Your Doctor Isn't Telling You" and "Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery."

R.J. Martin, the founder of the co-living space in Hawaii, told the Honolulu Civil Beat that Mangione had suffered back pain from a misaligned vertebra that was pinching his spinal cord.

Martin told CNN that after leaving Hawaii, Mangione texted him to say he'd undergone surgery and sent him X-rays.

"It looked heinous, with just, giant screws going into his spine," Martin told the outlet.

It's not immediately clear whether the surgery was related to UnitedHealthcare.

Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for the co-living space founder, told The Wall Street Journal that Mangione stopped replying to texts about six months ago and "sort of disappeared."

A YouTube spokesperson said that the platform had terminated Mangione's three accounts, adding that they had not been active for about seven months.

A senior police official told NBC New York on December 12 that Magione was never a UnitedHealthcare client and may have targeted Thompson because of the insurer's large size and outsize power. That same day, The Wall Street Journal reported that a company spokesperson said Magione was not a client.

Mangione was interested in AI

On his X account, Mangione posted and amplified posts about technological advances such as artificial intelligence. He also posted about fitness and healthy living.

He frequently reposted posts by the writer Tim Urban and the commentator Jonathan Haidt about the promise and perils of technology.

He also appeared to be a fan of Michael Pollan, known for his writing about food, ethics, and lab-grown meat.

On Goodreads, he praised Urban's book "What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies," describing it as "one of the most important philosophical texts of the early 21st century."

Urban posted to X on December 9: "Very much not the point of the book."

He was previously accused of trespassing

Before his arrest, Mangione had at least one encounter with the legal system. Hawaiian court records indicate that in 2023, he was accused of entering a forbidden area of a state park.

Mangione appears to have paid a $100 fine to resolve the matter.

Mangione comes from a wealthy and influential Baltimore family

Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren of the late Nick Mangione Sr., a prominent multimillionaire real-estate developer in Baltimore who died in 2008, The Baltimore Banner reported. Nick Mangione Sr. had 10 children, including Louis Mangione, Luigi Mangione's father.

Members of the Mangione family own the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, Maryland, and Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

One of Luigi Mangione's cousins is the Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, the Associated Press reported.

Representatives for Nino Mangione's office, in a statement to BI, declined to comment on the news of Luigi Mangione's arrest.

"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione," the statement read. "We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news."

The Mangione family has donated more than $1 million to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where all of Nick Mangione Sr.'s grandkids, including Luigi Mangione, were born, the Banner reported.

A public filing from 2022 for the nonprofit Mangione Family Foundation lists Louis Mangione as vice president.

He was arrested while on his laptop at a McDonald's, the police said

When the police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, responded to a McDonald's after a call about a suspicious person, they found Mangione sitting at a table looking at a silver laptop and wearing a blue medical mask, a criminal complaint said.

The complaint said that when asked for identification, Mangione gave police officers a New Jersey driver's license with the name "Mark Rosario."

When an officer asked Mangione whether he'd been to New York recently, he "became quiet and started to shake," the complaint said.

It added that Mangione correctly identified himself after officers told him he could be arrested for lying about his identity.

When asked why he lied, Mangione replied, "I clearly shouldn't have," the complaint said.

His motive is still not known, but police are analyzing his so-called manifesto

An internal NYPD report obtained by The New York Times said Mangione "likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices."

Mangione "appeared to view the targeted killing of the company's highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and 'power games,' asserting in his note he is the 'first to face it with such brutal honesty,'" according to the NYPD report by the department's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, the Times reported.

Moments before the December 10 extradition hearing began, Mangione, handcuffed and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, shouted out to the press as Pennsylvania police escorted him into the courthouse.

Mangione yelled out something partially unintelligible, saying something was "completely out of touch" and "an insult to the American people." He also shouted that something was a "lived experience" as a group of officers led him into the courthouse.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York that Mangione had prior knowledge that UnitedHealthcare would be having its annual conference in New York City.

Mangione has retained a high-profile New York attorney

Thomas Dickey emerged as Mangione's attorney in Pennsylvania after his arrest in Altoona on December 9.

During a December 10 hearing at Pennsylvania's Blair County Courthouse, Dickey told the judge that Mangione was contesting his extradition to New York City.

Dickey later told reporters that Mangione would plead not guilty to all the charges in Pennsylvania. During an interview with CNN, Dickey said he expected Mangione to plead not guilty to the second-degree murder charge in New York and that he hadn't seen evidence that authorities "have the right guy."

Karen Friedman Agnifilo will represent Mangione in New York, a representative for Agnifilo Intrater LLP confirmed to Business Insider on Sunday.

Friedman Agnifilo worked as the chief assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office from 2014 to 2021. She pivoted to private practice in 2021.

Do you know Luigi Mangione? Have a tip? Reach out to [email protected].