“As we have stated before in multiple public court filings, Mr Mangione does not support violent actions and does not condone past or future political violence,” his attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said. “These repeated attempts to connect him to unrelated acts or to insinuate that he condones or supports these acts are irresponsible, dangerous and prejudicial.”

The statement followed an attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, where a 31-year-old California teacher, Cole Allen, was arrested after allegedly shooting a US Secret Service agent in the chest in an attempt to gain entry to the event.

Federal prosecutors allege Allen intended to assassinate the president and had sent a “manifesto” to relatives and a former employer. US attorney Jeanine Pirro said: “Cole Allen traveled across the country with deadly weapons and a plan to assassinate the president of the United States. The swift and courageous response of the Secret Service officers prevented unimaginable tragedy. There is no room in this city for political violence.”

Separately, a Texas man, Daniel Moreno-Gama, has been accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the California home of OpenAI founder Sam Altman, allegedly referencing “Luigi’ing some tech CEOs”. In another case, arson suspect Chamel Abdulkarim was said to have invoked Mangione in a video before allegedly setting fire to a warehouse in Ontario, California.

Prosecutors have suggested that the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson may have had a wider social impact and could have inspired further acts of violence.