Attorneys representing Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in late 2024, have accused the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office of improperly obtaining over 120 pages of confidential medical records from Aetna, Mangione’s health insurer.
In a July 17 letter to the judge overseeing the trial, the defense claimed that the records, which include sensitive medical and personal information, were unlawfully accessed without the knowledge of either the court or Mangione’s defense team. The HIPAA-protected records were obtained by a subpoena that allegedly misrepresented a court date, which the defense claims was fabricated by the prosecution under the threat of criminal contempt if the requested documents were not provided.
“Aetna received a subpoena for certain medical records, and we provided them appropriately,” a spokesperson for the insurer told Becker’s.
According to the letter, the District Attorney’s Office instructed Aetna to send the medical records directly to their office, bypassing judicial oversight and preventing the defense from objecting to the disclosure of the confidential material.
“Based on the facts developed at this hearing, combined with other violations of Mr. Mangione’s rights, including an admitted prior violation of his attorney-client privilege, we ask that the court consider a range of appropriate sanctions, to include dismissal of the charges, precluding the people from accessing the HIPAA-protected materials they secured by an unlawful subpoena and/or recusing any member of the District Attorney’s staff, including the assigned ADAs, from further involvement in this case,” the defense wrote.
“As defense counsel knows, the people requested very limited information from Aetna and Aetna sent us additional materials in error,” a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office told CNN. “We deleted the materials as soon as we became aware of them and brought it to defense and the court’s attention.”
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal murder charges in the killing of Brian Thompson after federal prosecutors said they intend to pursue the death penalty.
