MINNEAPOLIS — An unsealed search warrant accompanying a federal indictment against alleged political assassin Vance Boelter on Tuesday revealed troubling new details despite a murky motive, including a rambling letter addressed to the FBI claiming he was instructed to carry out deadly violence against Minnesota lawmakers under threat of harm.

In announcing the grand jury’s six-count indictment and the unsealed warrant, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota also provided the latest updates in Boelter’s advancing federal case. The indictment included a “Notice of Special Findings,” a requirement should the Department of Justice seek the death penalty if Boelter is convicted — although that decision likely remains far off.

The grand jury charges, announced in the Minneapolis federal courthouse, accuse Boelter of offenses that he stalked and fatally shot DFL lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home on June 14. The indictment also brings firearm charges against Boelter for the shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and now includes the attempted shooting against their daughter, Hope Hoffman, in their Champlin home. John and Yvette survived their injuries.

“Vance Boelter committed a terrible act of political violence and extremism, a targeted political assassination that was unprecedented in the state of Minnesota,” said acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, Joe Thompson. “It has been a terrible personal tragedy for the Hoffman and Hortman families.”

Two of Boelter’s federal charges carry the possibility of the death penalty. Thompson on Tuesday said any decision about a death sentence will come later and requires approval from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has been vocal about her support for the punishment in applicable cases.

Boelter, 57, surrendered to law enforcement June 15 in a Green Isle field roughly one mile from his residence following a 43-hour manhunt.

Thompson said further investigation into the case has led investigators to feel “confident” Boelter acted alone. A motive, however, remains unclear.

“That leaves us with the why? Why did Vance Boelter do this? Why did he carry out this political assassination?” Thompson said. “That’s a harder question.”

Thompson said investigators have confirmed Boelter set out to commit a targeted, political assassination of “political extremism.” He carried lists of names of DFL politicians’ addresses, family members and conducted surveillance outside the lawmakers’ homes. The lists included names of attorneys at national law firms, Thompson revealed on Tuesday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office unsealed a 47-page search warrant written by FBI Special Agent Andrew Bilbrey which includes new details about Boelter’s alleged crime, including that he had cased the Hortmans’ house several hours before they were killed.

It also gives an indication into Boelter’s motivations and that his closest friends and associates were shocked at the allegations against him. The indictment notes until 2020, Boelter’s career as an adult centered around food companies and larger agribusinesses. About 2020, that career path pivoted to “a series of positions relating to death,” including funeral homes, retrieving human remains from scenes of homicides and car crashes and up until the shootings – a medical facility that recovers eyes from organ donors. About the same time, Boelter unsuccessfully attempted to start two businesses, including a private security company and entrepreneurial efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The warrant includes that Boelter shot at Hope Hoffman, narrowly missing her after shooting her parents. Boelter then traveled to the home of Rep. Kristin Bahner in Maple Grove and Sen. Ann Rest in New Hope before arriving at the Hortmans around 3:30 a.m.

Boelter knocked on the door wearing a silicone face mask and a brown wig. He said he was performing a welfare check after a report of shots fired inside the home. Mark Hortman answered the door and Boelter shined a flashlight in his eyes.

Hortman denied knowing about a shooting and said, “Good God, I was asleep.” Hortman told Boelter he couldn’t see him because of the flashlight and asked Boelter for a name and badge number.

Boelter responded, “Nelson, 286.”

At that point, Brooklyn Park police arrived and Boelter shot Hortman in the doorway. “One or more of the Brooklyn Park officers fired at Boelter as he charged forward into the home,” the search warrant says.

Security footage at the Hortmans caught more gunfire inside the home as Boelter shot Hortman “several times at close range, killing her as she attempted to flee up the stairs.”

It also notes that at the same time “sounds of extreme distress” can be heard coming from Gilbert, the Hortmans’ Golden Retriever. Gilbert was found injured outside the back door of the home, taken by FBI agents to a vet and later euthanized.

The backdoor was also left propped open, leading investigators to believe Boelter fled out the back of the house toward Edinburgh Golf Course. It would take 40 hours for Boelter to be apprehended near his home in Green Isle.

Details of new security footage from the Hortmans’ home show a man casing the home several hours before the shooting “wearing a rain jacket with the hood up.” Security footage from a home in northeast Minneapolis where Boelter was staying shows him leaving the residence hours before the shooting “wearing a rain jacket with the hood up, carrying what appears to be body armor and a duffle bag.”

In her first public statement since the night of the shootings, Hope Hoffman expressed gratitude over the new indictment. She said her parents pushed her out of the way that night, but described her sparing of gunfire as “dumb luck.”

“Though I was not shot physically, I 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,” Hope Hoffman said.

The full contents of Boelter’s letter to the FBI were released with the search warrant. It was addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel and in it, Boelter wrote that “I am the shooter at large in Minnesota.”

It contains allegations against Gov. Tim Walz and political leaders in the state that state and federal prosecutors have denounced as lacking a foundation in reality.

Thompson said that the letter was delusional but its intent was not clear,

“Was it a delusion that he believes, or was it a delusion that is designed as an effort to discredit our investigation, or, to frankly, excuse his crimes? Well, that’s good question,” Thompson said. “It certainly seems designed to excuse his crimes.”

Boelter wrote that he was recently approached about a project by Walz to kill U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith.

Boelter said Walz wants to be a senator and doesn’t trust that Tina Smith will “retire as planned” but that if Boelter were to kill both senators Walz would “get one of the gen senate seats” allowing someone else to become governor – Boelter does not clarify who, leaving the space for a name blank as he does in several other parts of the letter.

He also claimed that Attorney General Keith Ellison would then become lieutenant governor.

Boelter wrote that he told Walz he wanted nothing to do with the plan and would go public.

At that point, Boelter wrote, Walz threatened his family and called a meeting with Boelter and “Mel” and another blank space where he doesn’t list a name. He writes that they were waiting to kill him and he got away with “God’s mercy.”

“He leaves blanks for the names, and so he doesn’t name the people that he claims were involved,” Thompson said. “The idea that the Hortmans or Hoffmans were involved is offensive.”

Boelter told Patel to reach out to Walz and ask if he knows Boelter. He points out that he was appointed to the “Governors workforce Board” as a business representative and that Walz is probably trying to destroy that information.

It’s true that Walz reappointed Boelter in 2019 to a workforce development advisory board, one that Hoffman also served on at the time. But the governor did not know Boelter, who was first appointed to the board in 2016 by then-Gov. Mark Dayton.

In the letter, Boelter also asked Patel to look into why Walz didn’t immediately report the shooting, alleging that “they needed to get their stories figured out so everyone was on the same page.”

“Tim is probably crapping bricks right now because I’m still at large and he knows what I can do,” Boelter wrote.

Boelter alleged that he will likely be dead by the time Patel reads the letter. He claims that he was trained by “U.S. Military people off the books starting in college” and he worked on projects in Eastern Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa, “All in the line of what I thought was right and in the best interest of the United States.”

Thompson confirmed that Boelter does not have any military experience.

He also seemingly alludes to his interaction with a New Hope police officer who pulled up alongside him the night of the shooting while performing a wellness check on Sen. Ann Rest.

“Cops were pulling up right next to me in their vehicles and I had an AK pistol aimed right at her head,” Boelter wrote.

He wrote that he supports the police and didn’t fire a single shot at them despite the fact that “I could have left a pile of cops dead” but did not because he respects police.

Boelter ends the letter by asking Patel to transfer him to a military prison in Asia or the Middle East or on a military ship.

The warrant says the notebooks seized from Vance Boelter’s SUV and residence in Minneapolis contain “all manner of notations, scribbles, stray phone numbers or emails and list, but few cohesively written thoughts.”

”The notebooks contain some veiled references that suggest Boelter may have acted in a twisted and misguided sense of doing good," the warrant said.

In Boelter’s handwriting, they read: “Doing what most people know needs to be done but are not willing to do it themselves.” and ”If you want to save the country you have to get your hands dirty."

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Sofia Barnett of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.

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