Vance Boelter indicted on federal murder charges in the killing of Minnesota lawmaker and her husband

The Minnesota man accused of fatally shooting the state’s former house speaker in what authorities have described as a politically motivated assassination claimed that the state’s governor wanted him to kill two U.S. senators, officials said Tuesday.

Vance Boelter, 57, made the claims in a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel that was found in Boelter’s car after the shootings last month at two lawmakers’ homes, said acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson, who called the letter part of an apparent effort by Boelter to excuse his crimes.

Thompson said there was no evidence Boelter targeted Minnesota’s two U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar or Tina Smith, both Democrats. A spokesperson for Gov. Tim Walz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thompson said the letter, which also included claims that Boelter had carried out missions for the military in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, would be made public in an unsealed search warrant.

The disclosure came after a federal grand jury indicted Boelter on six counts of stalking, murder through the use of a firearm and other charges in the targeted shootings of two state lawmakers and their spouses, Thompson said.

It isn’t clear if federal authorities will seek the death penalty, he said.

Boelter’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

He will be arraigned on the six-count indictment in September and is set to face trial in November.

Boelter was charged with killing Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their Brooklyn Park home on June 14 while impersonating a law enforcement officer.

He is charged with shooting and injuring Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their nearby home the same day. Both have been released from the hospital.

Thompson said Tuesday that Boelter also tried to kill the couple’s daughter, Hope.

“Both John and Yvette acted with incredible bravery to put themselves between Boelters’ bullets and their daughter,” he said. “Miraculously, Hope was not shot, but she was the fifth intended victim.”

In a statement, Hope Hoffman said that while she was not wounded in the gunfire, she will “now forever coexist with the PTSD of watching my parents be nearly shot dead in front of me and seeing my life flash before my eyes with a gun in my face.”

“How I didn’t get grazed is nothing short of dumb luck,” she added. “I’m grateful I happened to be at my parents’ house to be able to call 911. Had I not been, they wouldn’t be here. My parents saved me, and we saved each other.”

After a manhunt, Boelter was found two days after the shootings crawling in a field in a rural part of the state. He pleaded not guilty to multiple state charges of second-degree intentional murder and attempted murder.

Authorities have said he left behind a notebook with a list of politicians from his home state — including Hortman and Hoffman — as well as lawmakers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska and Iowa.

During a court hearing this month, Boelter waived his rights to probable cause and preliminary hearings and said he was “looking forward to the truth and facts about the 14th to come to the public.”

“By waiving these two things, that gets us to that faster, where the truth can come out,” he said.