Vance Boelter pleads not guilty to federal indictment in lawmaker shootings

Accused assassin Vance Boelter entered a not guilty plea to federal charges Thursday in connection with the political shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their families in June.

Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minn., made the plea during a brief hearing in a Minneapolis federal courtroom after waiving the reading of his six-count indictment by U.S. Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster in connection with the stalking and slaying of state Rep. Melissa Hortman, her husband, Mark Hortman, the shooting of John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and attempted shooting of their daughter, Hope, in the families’ homes.

Boelter’s federal defender, Manny Atwal, indicated ahead of the arraignment that Boelter would plead not guilty to the counts. According to charging documents, Boelter drove an SUV designed to look like a police cruiser and wore a hyper-realistic mask and law enforcement uniform at the time of the gunfire.

Two of Boelter’s federal charges carry the possibility of the death penalty if he’s convicted. Prosecutors have not made a decision whether they will pursue a capital sentence, which would require the green light from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

An unshaven Boelter, wearing a neon orange sweatshirt, did not address the court beyond agreeing to enter a plea.

The court also laid out a schedule for Boelter’s federal proceedings that stretched into 2026, though no trial date has been set. Federal prosecutors said the case will require review of an enormous volume of discovery because of the investigation arising from the largest manhunt in Minnesota history. The 43-hour search for Boelter following the shootings ended in Green Isle when investigators found him just 1 mile from his home.

“That discovery will include likely hundreds or even thousands of hours of video footage, including body-worn camera and squad video from more than a dozen different law enforcement agencies,” prosecutors wrote in court records.

A motive behind the assassinations remains murky. His closest associates were described as genuinely shocked by the allegations, according to his indictment. Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson has said the investigation confirmed Boelter acted alone and allegedly carried out the fatal gunfire as an act of “political extremism,” as shown in lists he carried of DFL politicians’ home addresses and surveillance conducted outside their homes. The lists also contained names of attorneys at national law firms.

Until 2020, the indictment notes, Boelter’s career mostly involved roles in prominent agribusiness and food companies. His career trajectory then pivoted to work in the funeral home industry, serving in a “series of positions relating to death,” including retrieving human remains. He worked at an organ donation and extraction company until the day before the shootings.

Boelter himself claimed the violence was part of a conspiracy in a handwritten letter addressed to the FBI that prosecutors have portrayed as delusional. In the letter found inside an abandoned Buick he purchased after the shootings, Boelter declared himself as the “shooter at large” and detailed a long-winded plot involving Gov. Tim Walz and other political leaders.