On Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Mangione’s legal team, led by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, responded in a statement.

“By seeking to murder Luigi Mangione, the Justice Department has moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric,” said Agnifilo. “Their decision to execute Luigi is political and goes against the recommendation of the local federal prosecutors, the law, and historical precedent. While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi. By doing this, they are defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry that continues to terrorize the American people. We are prepared to fight these federal charges, brought by a lawless Justice Department, as well as the New York State charges, and the Pennsylvania charges, and anything else they want to pile on Luigi. This is a corrupt web of government dysfunction and one-upmanship. Luigi is caught in a high-stakes game of tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors, except the trophy is a young man’s life.”

Mangione, 26, is currently being held in Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He is the lead suspect in the murder of Thompson, which occurred in the early morning of Dec. 4. In December, Mangione pleaded not guilty to state murder and terror charges. He is facing federal charges for second-degree murder as well as weapons charges, but has not been asked to enter a plea. Mangione is also facing state charges in Altoona, Pennsylvania where he was arrested. His next federal court date is scheduled for April 18.

“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said in a statement. “After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”

The federal charges against Mangione include stalking. “The murder was an act of political violence,” Bondi’s office said in her statement. “Mangione’s actions involved substantial planning and premeditation and because the murder took place in public with bystanders nearby, may have posed grave risk of death to additional persons.” The attorney general said seeking the death penalty is in line with her order about reviving the federal death penalty.

Mangione’s lawyer, Agnifilo, has emphasized that Mangione being prosecuted by three different jurisdictions (Pennsylvania, New York, and federal) for one alleged event is “unprecedented.”

In Mangione’s last state court appearance in Manhattan on Feb. 21, Agnifilo said that her team was in the process of speaking to federal authorities as they decided whether or not to seek the death penalty. 

“Obviously, that’s an extremely serious matter that we’re in the process of providing mitigation for the Feds for that purpose, and that is where our focus is,” said Agnifilo. “One of the issues here is that the two theories of prosecution are opposite and inconsistent with one another, and by defending ourselves in state court, we are potentially providing fodder for the federal court appearance case and vice versa.”

The judge in the New York State case has said that if federal authorities permit, Mangione can be granted a laptop while incarcerated in order to view discovery. His next state court appearance is scheduled for June 26. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, his legal team has filed motions declaring Mangione’s constitutional rights were violated when he was apprehended in Altoona.