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Luigi Mangione’s Attorney Blasts Eric Adams: ‘Mayor Should Know More Than Anyone of the Presumption of Innocence’

Luigi Mangione’s attorney made light of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ legal troubles while slamming him over the “perp walk” photo op from last week.
Mangione is accused of shooting United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4. The shooting took place outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel as Thompson was due to attend an investors’ meeting. Mangione was arrested five days later at an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s, and extradited to New York City.
Mangione appeared in court Monday morning, entering a plea of not guilty to 11 charges, including murder and an act of terrorism, according to NBC News. Last Thursday, he was flown via helicopter from Long Island’s MacArthur Airport into New York City. Armed NYPD officers, accompanied by Mayor Adams, walked Mangione from the helicopter to the van taking him to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, his lawyer, heavily criticized the photo opportunity as “the biggest staged perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career,” according to The Hill. She that it may sabotage Mangione’s right to a fair trial, saying that he had fully cooperated with law enforcement following his arrest.
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“There was no reason for the NYPD and everybody to have these big assault rifles that, frankly, I had no idea was in their arsenal. And to have all of this press there, the media there, it was perfectly choreographed. And what was the New York City mayor doing at this press conference? That just made it utterly political. The mayor should know more than anyone of the presumption of innocence that he too is afforded when dealing with his own issues,” Friedman Agnifilo said.
At the time of the perp walk, Adams shared images to social media, and declared that he was “leading from the front,” according to the New York Times.
“I wanted to look him in the eye and say you carried out this terroristic 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 said.
Adams is currently facing federal charges of conspiracy to receive campaign contributions from foreign nationals, wire fraud and accepting a bribe.
“As alleged, Mayor Adams abused his position as this City’s highest elected official, and before that as Brooklyn Borough President, to take bribes and solicit illegal campaign contributions. By allegedly taking improper and illegal benefits from foreign nationals—including to allow a Manhattan skyscraper to open without a fire inspection—Adams put the interests of his benefactors, including a foreign official, above those of his constituents,” U.S. attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
Adams is not the only one in the mayor’s office to be under investigation. Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Adams’ chief advisor, resigned on December 15. Nine other members of his administration, including NYPD commissioner Edward Caban, resigned in September and October, according to City and State NY.
Image by Marc A. Hermann / Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, used under a Creative Commons license.
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