(NewsNation) — The New York attorney for Luigi Mangione, the man accused in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is not the only person in her intermediate family linked to a high-profile client.
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who has been retained to represent Mangione on second-degree murder charges, is married to Marc Agnifilo, the attorney for Sean “Diddy” Combs, according to multiple media reports. Combs, the disgraced hip-hop mogul, faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Friedman Agnifilo served as the Manhattan chief assistant district attorney between 2014 and 2021. She worked previously in private practice and served as general counsel on criminal justice policy for New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s office between 2006 and 2010. The New York Post reported Friedman Agnifilo joined her husband’s firm, Agnifilo Intrater, in 2021.
Friedman Agnifilo told the New York Daily News that she does not plan to issue any comment at this time about representing Mangione. However, she worked for CNN before she was retained by Mangione and gave an indication of how she may treat the case, Newsday reported.
“It looks like to me there might be a ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ defense because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did,” Friedman Agnifilo said on a CNN broadcast.
Mangione’s case will be the latest high-profile trial for Friedman Agnifilo, who has worked in criminal justice, litigation, and trials for three decades. In between cases, Friedman Agnifilo serves as a legal analyst for cable news networks and even as a legal advisor for the show “Law and Order.”
Mangione is currently being held without bail in Pennsylvania where he faces gun and forgery offenses. He was apprehended in Altoona, Pennsylvania when a McDonald’s customer recognized him and tipped off employees. He is expected to waive extradition to New York at a hearing that is scheduled for Tuesday.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to charges he faces in Pennsylvania, including possession of an unlicensed gun, forgery and providing false identification to police.
According to his profile on his firm’s website, Marc Agnifilo has won acquittals in many of the country’s most complex and difficult trials.
He worked previously as a supervisor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. He also worked previously as a Manhattan assistant district attorney. At the Agnifilo Intrater firm, Agnifilo serves as the lead trial counsel on complicated and serious criminal cases, investigations and financial regulatory matters.
Before requesting bail be granted for his client, Agnfilio said that Combs was not adjusting well to a new prison diet, saying that the food “is probably the roughest part of it.”
The firm’s website said Friedman Agnifilo specializes in internal investigations relating to misconduct, discrimination and sexual assault.
The New York Daily News reported that the couple was previously on opposing sides of the sexual assault case involving International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2011.
Friedman Agnifilo was working for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office at the time, which meant she would not have to recuse herself in the matter, The New York Times reported. The New York Post reported, however, that Friedman Agnifilo was forced to recuse herself from several of her husband’s cases, including one against Harvey Weinstein.
“It’s never been awkward,” Marc Agnifilo told the newspaper about being part of a two-lawyer household tied to high-profile cases. “We’re pretty regimented about it. If she’s recused from a case, we really don’t talk about it.”
