This article originally appeared on PolitiFact.
Hours after the shooting of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses, prominent conservative influencers spun unsubstantiated theories that the suspect was a left-wing extremist who targeted the Democratic-aligned leaders for voting against party lines, and did so with the blessing of the state’s top Democrat, Gov. Tim Walz.
Authorities said a man posing as an officer shot state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette in their home early June 14, and then shot and killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a former Democratic speaker, and her husband Mark in their home a few miles away.
READ MORE: Authorities share details of Minnesota lawmaker shootings as search for suspect continues
Authorities soon identified the shooting suspect as 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter of Green Isle, Minn. And conservative influencers, including Benny Johnson, Rogan O’Handley and Mike Cernovich pounced — surfacing what they floated as an incriminating connection between Boelter and the governor.
Walz, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee, reappointed Boelter in 2019 to a state board focused on Minnesota’s workforce. But we found no evidence that Walz and Boelter were closely acquainted nor any evidence that Walz was in any way linked to the shootings, which he described as an “unspeakable tragedy” and “targeted political violence.”
A spokesperson for Walz said the governor’s office appoints thousands of people of all political affiliations to legislature-created unpaid, external boards and commissions.
This is a developing situation and Boelter had not been apprehended or charged in connection with the attacks as of Sunday morning.
Influencers seized on a board appointment and overlooked details
Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, who served from 2011 to 2019, appointed Boelter as a “private sector representative” on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board.
On Dec. 9, 2019, Walz reappointed Boelter to serve on the group as a “business member.” The board — which has about 60 members, 41 of whom are appointed by the governor — analyzes and recommends to the governor and state Legislature workforce policies related to things such as talent development or addressing barriers to employment — to help Minnesota maintain a globally competitive labor force, its website says.
The board includes members from the public sector, the private sector, organized labor and community-based organizations, the website said.
That connection launched wild theories on the right.
Cernovich, a conservative personality whose followers on X include Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House adviser Stephen Miller, speculated in a 1:30 p.m. ET X post, that Walz might have “ordered a hit.”
“The Vice President candidate for the Democrat party is directly connected to a domestic terrorist, that is confirmed, the only question is whether Tim Walz himself ordered the political hit against a rival who voted against Walz’s plan to give free healthcare to illegals,” Cernovich wrote.
O’Handley amplified Cernovich’s post on his DC_Draino account, writing, “Did Tim Walz order a hit job of a Democrat state legislator that voted against his agenda?”
Johnson, a conservative political commentator, said in a post that Walz “personally knew” the suspect “who just committed multiple assassinations of Tim Walz political enemies in the state of Minnesota.”
But there’s no information showing Walz considered the shooting victims to be his “enemies.” He called Hortman his “good friend,” “the dearest of friends,” and a “great leader” in an emotional June 14 press conference addressing the news.
WATCH: State Rep. Finke responds to assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman
Walz’s spokesperson told PolitiFact that appointments to the workforce board aren’t the same as positions in the governor’s office or cabinet, and Walz had no relationship with Boelter.
Boelter’s most recent term on the board expired Jan. 2, 2023. Hoffman, who underwent surgery for his injuries, served on the board with Boelter, The New York Times reported.
Boelter, who said as recently as May that he was looking for full-time work, has a varied work history that includes security work and food industry and retail management, according to his LinkedIn and other online sources. He’s listed on a website for Praetorian Guard Security Services as director of security patrols; his wife is listed as CEO and president. The company launched in 2018, according to corporate records, and it says it provides armed security for property and events. Boelter’s online biography says he has received training from the U.S. military and private firms and has done security work in Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, including in the Gaza Strip.
A man who identified himself as Boelter’s part-time roommate at an address in Minneapolis told news reporters June 14 that Boelter had been working at a funeral home, according to The Minnesota Star-Tribune and KMSP-TV Fox 9 News.
No evidence linking shootings to vote about immigrant health care
Before a suspect was named, conservative X users circulated theories based on the lawmakers’ recent votes.
The X account “Right Angle News Network,” which purports to share reliable conservative news, posted that Hortman and Hoffman “both recently voted against their party, with Hortman supporting repeal of free healthcare for illegals and Hoffman joining Republicans in the Senate to pass it.”
That post was wrong.
Although Hortman was the only Democrat who voted with Republicans to pass a budget bill that will remove adult immigrants in the U.S. illegally from the state’s MinnesotaCare health program, Hoffman voted against the bill that would end such coverage.
After an hour, Right Angle News Network posted a correction.
But X users reposted the claims and Grok, X’s artificial intelligence tool, repeated the falsehood about Hoffman. And some, including Collin Rugg, co-owner of conservative news site TrendingPolitics, theorized on X that Hortman’s vote was linked to her killing.
Boelter’s online voter registration record includes no mention of his party affiliation, if he has one. The New York Times reported that state reports in 2016 listed Boelter’s political affiliation as “none or other” and in 2020 said “no party preference.” But David Carlson, who described himself to KARE-TV as Boelter’s current roommate and longtime friend said Boelter voted for Republican President Donald Trump, though he hadn’t talked about politics lately. The Minnesota Star-Tribune reported Carlson said Boelter held strong anti-abortion views in the 1990s.
The New York Times reported that U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said in an interview that the suspect had a list of about 70 targets, including herself, other Democratic lawmakers and “doctors, community and business leaders, and locations for Planned Parenthood and other health care centers.”
PolitiFact’s Senior Audience Engagement Producer Ellen Hine contributed to this report.
