Wife of alleged political assassin says she’s ‘absolutely shocked,’ pledges cooperation with police

The wife of the man charged with shooting two Minnesota political leaders and their families offered sympathies to the victims and their families Thursday morning, calling the attacks a “betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of the Christian faith.”

Speaking publicly for the first time, Jenny Boelter released a statement through a lawyer saying she and her family are fully cooperating with the investigation of her husband, Vance Boelter. The family was “absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided,” to learn of the allegations, she said.

“On behalf of my children and myself, I want to express our deepest sympathies to the Hortman and Hoffman families,” Jenny Boelter wrote. “Our condolences are with all who are grieving during this unimaginably difficult time, and we are praying daily for them.”

Vance Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, Minn., stands charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder. He also faces six federal charges, including for stalking and murder, which could potentially carry the death penalty. In an apparent targeted political assassination attempt, the charges say he disguised himself as a police officer and shot DFL Sen. John Hoffman and his wife a total of 17 times in their home early June 14. Then Boelter went to the nearby residence of DFL House leader Melissa Hortman and opened fire.

The Hoffmans survived with serious injuries; Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman were killed.

In the statement, Jenny Boelter said she received a call from law enforcement on the morning after the shootings and drove to meet agents at a nearby gas station. When authorities arrived, she said, “we voluntarily agreed to meet with them, answer their questions, provide all items they requested, and cooperate with all searches. We are grateful for the diligent and professional efforts of the authorities to fully investigative these crimes. We thank law enforcement for apprehending Vance and protecting others from further harm.”

Jenny Boelter asked for privacy as the investigation proceeds, saying the family doesn’t plan to make further statements, according to the statement, released by Minneapolis-based Halberg Criminal Defense.

In court documents, investigators have identified Vance and Jenny Boelter as “preppers,” a growing group of Americans who stockpile food and supplies out of fear of an imminent cataclysm. Agents say they searched her vehicle and found her with passports, guns — including a pistol stored in a cooler — and $10,000 in cash. No court documents have implicated Jenny Boelter or anyone else in the family in the assassination plot.

Law enforcement first contacted Jenny Boelter at 10 a.m. that Saturday morning, according to search warrants filed in Hennepin County District Court seeking to tap Vance Boelter’s phone. The warrant describes her as both “cooperative with law enforcement” and “initially ... not forthcoming with knowledge of her husband being involved in something serious.”

When an investigator, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Special Agent Mike Anderson, told her that her husband was a suspect in a shooting, Jenny Boelter allegedly asked why they would think that. She told Anderson she had received a text message from Boelter earlier that morning telling her to take the kids to her parent’s house and that “there may be people with guns coming to the house.”

Jenny Boelter told the officer she was heading to her parents house when she was contacted. The warrant says she agreed to pull over and wait for law enforcement. She also told police that Boelter had recently purchased masks for his security company and that it looked like the mask from security footage from the shooting at the home of the Hoffmans. An additional search warrant claims that Jenny Boelter told law enforcement that Vance still owned a Ford vehicle with “blue and red lights for his security business” and that the first person Vance contacted that morning was their son.