A registered Minnesota lobbyist was charged Friday with “threats of violence” that included targeting the State Capitol, escalating lawmaker safety concerns following the assassinations of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.
The defendant, 41-year-old Jonathan Bohn of Woodbury, is a lobbyist with Inter Faculty Organization, a union representing faculty at Minnesota State universities.
The Carver County Sheriff’s Office was contacted Wednesday by a man who said Bohn was an acquaintance who threatened him that night. The man said the two had not communicated for a “considerable” amount of time due to “political differences that had arisen.”
The attacks against the Hortmans along with Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who were shot and injured the same night, have prompted heightened police protection for some state and federal lawmakers and raised questions about the relatively open Minnesota Capitol. On Thursday, Gov. Tim Walz said the Legislature should reconsider the state law that lets permit holders carry concealed weapons in the Capitol building.
The criminal complaint against Bohn includes four of the alleged texts he sent, three of which included threats. One says Bohn had “bought 500 bullets.” Another allegedly said that Bohn wanted to bring a gun to the Capitol and shoot someone.
Bohn released a statement from jail, saying he was grieving the deaths of the Hortmans and the associated shootings of the Hoffmans when he sent the texts.
“In the midst of this immense grief, I sent a series of heated and emotional texts to a friend of nearly thirteen years,” he said.
“I condemn violence in all its forms, and I agree with the calls from public officials and community leaders to turn down the temperature of our political discourse,” he added. “I failed to do that here.”