A Minnesota man was charged Thursday with impersonating an FBI agent after he showed up at a federal prison in New York City claiming to have a court order to release an inmate, identified by a law enforcement source as accused killer Luigi Mangione.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark Anderson, 35, was arrested at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn late Wednesday after prison workers asked to see his credentials and he produced a Minnesota driver\u2019s license and \u201cclaimed to be in possession of weapons,\u201d according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for thr Eastern District of New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anderson also claimed \u201cthat he was an FBI Agent in possession of paperwork \u2018signed by a judge\u2019 authorizing the release of a specific inmate,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inmate is not named in the court document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnderson also displayed and threw at [Bureau of Prisons] officers numerous documents,\u201d the complaint states. \u201cThey appear to be related to filing claims against the United States Department of Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his backpack, BOP workers found a barbecue fork and a \u201cround steel blade\u201d that resembled a pizza cutter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anderson had traveled to New York from Minnesota for a job opportunity that didn\u2019t work out, and had been working at a pizzeria, the law enforcement source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anderson was ordered detained Thursday after a magistrate judge found that he posed a flight risk, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His court-appointed federal public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mangione, 27, has been at the federal lockup in Brooklyn since December 2024, after he was arrested for allegedly ambushing and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charged in New York with second-degree murder, Mangione has also been charged with four federal charges, including two counts of stalking, one court of murder and one count of using a firearm to commit murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in April that the government would seek the death penalty against Mangione for \u201can act of political violence\u201d and a \u201cpremeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then in August, federal prosecutors argued in a filing that Mangione poses a threat to the public because he is actively seeking to influence others to follow in his footsteps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSimply put, the defendant hoped to normalize the use of violence to achieve ideological or political objectives,\u201d they said in the document. \u201cSince the murder, certain quarters of the public \u2014 who openly identify as acolytes of the defendant \u2014 have increasingly begun to view violence as an acceptable, or even necessary, substitute for reasoned political disagreement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since his arrest, Mangione’s legal defense fund has raised more than a million dollars in donations as people angry with the nation\u2019s for-profit medical system have voiced their support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n