A Pennsylvania attorney said Tuesday evening that he has been retained to represent Luigi Mangione but declined to say who has done so.
“Yeah, I’m not gonna comment,” attorney Thomas Dickey told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Pressed further, Dickey said, “I’m not court-appointed. I’ve been retained and that’s all I can tell you.”
Asked about reports that people have inundated him with offers to pay Mangione’s legal bills, Dickey said he understands from his staff that his office has gotten such offers but that he probably wouldn’t accept them.
“I just don’t feel comfortable about that,” Dickey said, adding that his client obviously appreciates any support that he’s gotten.
Mangione, 26, a member of a well-known Baltimore-area family, has refused to waive extradition to face charges of second-degree murder and related offenses in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 outside the New York Hilton Midtown. He was arrested by police Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on a gun charge, and the next day unleashed an outburst as he was led into the Blair County Courthouse.
Speaking to reporters after the court proceedings, Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said his office will be ready whenever a judge schedules the extradition hearing. “We do not intend to delay this defendant’s extradition to New York,” Weeks said. “Their prosecution should take precedence, and then ours will follow.”
Asked why he was fighting extradition, Dickey stressed that “the Constitution permits that somebody in Luigi’s position has the opportunity to look at evidence, make sure the government follows through a process and that’s what we’re doing.”
He also told Collins that he had been on the case less than a day and, he said, “I haven’t seen a speck of evidence at all.”
Dickey added that he hadn’t received details about the charges that Mangione is facing in New York.
Collins: “So you’re not, as you’re fighting extradition, you’re not actually arguing that authorities in New York have the wrong guy? Are you?”
Dickey: “Well, I haven’t seen any evidence that they have the right guy. I can tell you that much. … There’s, you know, identification issues that are present.”
Baltimore Banner reporter Dylan Segelbaum contributed to this story.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Kaitlan Collins’ first name.
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