With all of the chaos that has been going on over the last few weeks, it can be easy to forget that one of the more attention-grabbing incidents of (alleged) violence from those on the political left was the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO last December.
We talked about this incident previously here, if you need a refresher on that horrible situation.
Now, some have said that the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder was an act of terrorism, and based on the FBI’s definition of terrorism, they could be right. The FBI defines domestic terrorism as follows:
Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature
If Mangione killed that CEO to further ideological goals, instead of for personal revenge, for example, then that would seem to qualify as terrorism.
But the judge on the case disagrees. Tom Ozimek writes,
A New York state judge has dismissed terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last December, but ruled the case will proceed on an intentional murder charge and other counts.
Justice Gregory Carro issued his decision on Sept. 16 in Manhattan Supreme Court, finding that prosecutors failed to prove Mangione killed in furtherance of terrorism under New York law.
Now, I’m not an expert on New York state law (I’m neither a lawyer, nor do I play one on television), so, maybe by New York’s legal definition, that ruling could be correct.
From my admittedly layperson’s point of view, though, that conclusion does seem questionable, though. After all, why target the CEO of the largest health insurer in the U.S. if you weren’t trying to intimidate health insurance companies to change how they handle claims, which is exactly what some people are saying that Mangione was trying to do?
Regardless, the murder charges and other charges are going ahead against Mangione, so it seems unlikely that he’ll get off easy.
This does seem to be a strange twist to this situation to me, though. What are your thoughts? Tell us below.
