Man pleads not guilty to impersonating FBI agent to free Luigi Mangione

BROOKLYN (CN) — A 36-year-old Minnesota man who law enforcement sources say tried to break Luigi Mangione out of a Brooklyn jail pleaded not guilty Tuesday to impersonating an FBI agent.

Through his public defender, Mark Anderson entered the plea to one count of false personation of an officer or employee of the United States, a charge that could land him three years in prison if convicted.

Authorities arrested Anderson on the evening Jan. 28 after prosecutors say he showed up to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn — where Mangione is jailed awaiting a June murder trial — armed with a pizza cutter and a barbecue fork.

According to a criminal complaint, filed in the Eastern District of New York, Anderson told Bureau of Prisons guards that he was an FBI agent with paperwork “signed by a judge” that authorized the release of an inmate.

“When asked to provide federal credentials, the defendant Mark Anderson displayed his Minnesota driver’s license to the BOP officers and then claimed to be in possession of weapons,” prosecutors say.

Sources say the targeted inmate was Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024. Neither the complaint nor the indictment name Mangione specifically, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Dennehy told the court last month that the unnamed prisoner is “actually very well-known” and indeed jailed at MDC Brooklyn.

Prior to his arrest, Anderson also threw “numerous documents” at the prison guards, including papers “related to filing claims against the United States Department of Justice, prosecutors claim.

The Mankato, Minnesota, native is now jailed at the same jail he’s accused of seeking to infiltrate. He arrived in court on Tuesday shackled at the legs and sporting the standard beige prison garb and reading glasses.

Anderson didn’t contest his ongoing detention, but his lawyer Michael Weil reserved the right to make a bail application in the future.

Last month, Weil asked a federal magistrate judge to let Anderson seek mental health treatment instead of incarcerating him. But the judge cited Anderson’s lengthy criminal rap sheet — which includes past convictions on robbery, burglary and narcotics charges, among others — in denying the bid for release.

Anderson was previously arrested as recently as Dec. 26 for menacing with a firearm.

Law enforcement sources say Anderson had been working at a Bronx pizzeria at the time of his arrest, after he moved to New York City for a job opportunity that didn’t pan out.

He’s also a serial pro se litigant. According to court records, he’s filed several complaints in the Southern District of New York claiming to be disabled and referencing stints in homeless shelters. He sued New York City last year, claiming to have “badly injured” his ankle on the steps of a shelter.

Anderson even filed a suit against the FBI the day of his Jan. 28 arrest.

Two days later, Mangione himself was in Manhattan’s federal court, where a judge dismissed death penalty-eligible charges against him in the murder case. Speaking to reporters outside of the courthouse, Mangione’s lawyer Karen Agnifilo said she “didn’t know anything about” Anderson’s arrest.

“I heard about it and, I understand that there’s not even any mention of Mr. Mangione, so I don’t know that it is even related,” Agnifilo said at the time.

Mangione faces a parallel state case in New York Supreme Court, which is set to go to trial in June with a top count of second-degree murder. His federal case is tentatively set for September, but the date could get pushed if federal prosecutors decide to appeal the dismissal of the death penalty.

Prosecutors are using Mangione’s status as a folk hero in some online circles, sparked by his apparent disdain for the for-profit health care industry, as proof he sought to ignite an uprising against insurance executives.

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