Here is the article:
It is unlikely but not out of the question that Luigi Mangione, suspected of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, will face federal charges, and it is “fair to be concerned” that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg will “mishandle this case,” former prosecutors told Fox News Digital.
Mangione was arrested by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning after a five-day manhunt when a McDonald’s patron recognized his face from wanted posters. On Tuesday, Mangione refused to waive his right to an extradition hearing in a Pennsylvania court, and his attorney said he intends to file a writ of habeas corpus challenging Mangione’s arrest.
Federal authorities may be able to hand down murder charges, but former prosecutors note that “the types of things that could make it go federal is if [the murder] was in conjunction with organized crime, drug trafficking or a hate crime, which has a more narrow definition than just ‘I hate insurance companies.'”
Possessing a “ghost gun,” a home-cooked weapon that is unserialized and therefore untraceable, is a federal offense, according to former Joint Terrorism Task Force head and Port Authority Chief Security Officer John Ryan. However, sentencing for such a charge would amount to a far shorter sentence than a murder charge at a state level, likely just a year behind bars.
Some have expressed concerns about Bragg’s ability to prosecute Mangione’s case, with Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy writing that it is “unprincipled” to allow politics to get in the way of a fair prosecution. Former prosecutor James Trusty noted that it is “fair to be concerned” that Bragg may “mishandle this case, perhaps by allowing politics to be injected into the decision-making process instead of being a professional prosecutor.”