Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

FBI Announces Federal Charges Against Minnesota Shooting Suspect; U.S. Attorney Says Boelter Posed As Police Officer To Attack Lawmaker; Hakeem Jeffries Expected To Meet With Congressional Leaders About Security After Minnesota Lawmakers Shot; Israel And Iran Launch New Attacks As Conflict Deepens; G7 Summit Begins In Canada As Israel- Iran Conflict Deepens; U.S. Officials Say Trump Rejected Israeli Plan To Kill Iran's Ayatollah. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 16, 2025 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:01:13]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The suspect accused of shooting two Minnesota State lawmakers and their spouses is due in court this hour. We're learning new details about how Vance Boelter allegedly lured his victims to their front doors and attempted to target even more politicians.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Plus, undeterred by protests, President Trump orders ICE to expand its operations in Democratic run cities. We're told the White House wants to see at least 3,000 immigration related arrests per day. And later, a juror dismissed in the sex trafficking trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs. We'll explain why as we follow these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

KEILAR: Moments from now, the suspect accused of shooting two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses is set to make his first appearance in federal court. 57-year-old Vance Boelter is facing six federal charges, including two counts of murder with a firearm. He's also facing state murder charges. Boelter was arrested in the woods on Sunday night after a 43-hour manhunt. The two lawmakers who were shot by -- allegedly by Boelter, were both Democrats. They were shot in their own homes.

Authorities revealed in a news conference not long ago that Boelter actually went to the homes of two other politicians with "the intent to kill them." CNN's Danny Freeman is in Minneapolis. Danny, what's the latest that you're learning?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the acting U.S. attorney here in Minneapolis called these crimes the stuff of nightmares. Now you said it just a moment ago that we're expecting to see the suspect here, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, in federal court in just under a half hour or so. That's going to be actually in St. Paul in the Twin City. But here's the thing, Brianna, while we know that he's going to face six federal charges there to start, that's including murder, that's including stalking, that's including firearm offenses. As you noted, the most shocking thing that we learned when this federal criminal complaint was unsealed and that press conference occurred is that Boelter allegedly went to two other homes, targeting four Minnesota State lawmakers early in the morning hours on Saturday. So the first home that he went to, according to authorities, was the home of state Senator John Hoffman. And I just want you to take a listen to how the acting U.S. attorney framed that moment where Boelter approached the door of their home, dressed in tactical gear, dressed in a silicon mask, and presented himself falsely as a police officer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE THOMPSON, U.S. ATTORNEY: When they opened the door, Boelter shined the flashlight in their faces and said there had been a shooting reported in the house. Boelter asked if they had any weapons. When Boelter lowered his flashlight, which he had shined in their face, they realized that he was not a police officer. They shut it out. You're not a cop; you're not a police officer.

Boelter then announced this is a robbery and forced himself into their home. When Senator Hoffman attempted to push Boelter out and stop him from entering his home, Boelter shot him repeatedly. Boelter then shot Ms. Hoffman repeatedly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: But, Boelter allegedly did not stop there After that shooting, he then, according to these U.S. officials, went to a second lawmaker's house, but that lawmaker was not home, so he then moved on to a third lawmaker's house. But at that point, at this point in the evening, police were already aware that there had been a shooting. So, a number of local law enforcement officers actually spread out to now, we know a number of local lawmakers' homes. It seemed at that point that Boelter was scared off from the third home, his third intended victim, but he was then able to allegedly get to State Representative Melissa Hortman 's home where he, ultimately, killed her and her husband, Mark.

[14:05:00]

Now, I just want to add one quick thing, something we learned here also, that during the then flurry manhunt that took about 43 hours, searching for Boelter, Boelter allegedly texted his family members saying, in this texts from the criminal complaint, dad went to war last night. I don't want to say more because I don't want to implicate anyone. Again, so many frightening details here about this story. Again, that court appearance coming within the hour. Brianna?

KEILAR: Danny Freeman, thank you so much for that report. Boris?

SANCHEZ: We're joined now by CNN Law Enforcement Analyst, Jonathan Wackrow. Jonathan, thanks for being with us. Stepping back, I wonder what kind of security, if any, do state officials and their spouses typically have? JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, typically, their own personal safety is their own responsibility, unless it's -- there's a direct threat or a veiled threat that has been lodged against them or if there's some -- a moment of a critical event. So, it actually speaks to the vulnerability that our lawmakers have, that our politicians, our elected officials have that they face a variety of domestic threats day in and day out. We're seeing this rise of political violence and acting U.S. Attorney Thompson said that earlier today, that he wanted to make it very clear that this was an act of political assassination. And he also acknowledged the rise of political extremism across our country.

With that Boris, that actually necessitates both state and federal lawmakers to bolster their own security structure around them, mindful of this rising threat that they now face.

SANCHEZ: Do you still worry, even though he's in custody, about the safety of the people that he reportedly targeted in his writings, including some prominent Democrats and abortion rights advocates?

WACKROW: I do. And here's why. This was not an impulsive crime. This was very well thought out. It was ideologically driven. And because of that, my fear is that someone else will pick up the mantle and try to continue on whatever mission that he was trying to, or goal that he was trying to attain. So, again, while this individual is in custody, lawmakers are trying to work very quickly, and we heard that during this press conference that they were hesitant to say whether or not anyone else was involved.

Why? Because this is an ongoing investigation, but they need to quickly assess whether or not this individual was working in conjunction with people to support his actions, or is this part of a broader ideological group that he is part of that he just launched this attack on behalf of? So, again, lawmakers are at risk every single day, and I do worry about copycat attacks or repeat attacks. We have seen acts of political violence on the rise across the United States. So, this is a big concern right now.

SANCHEZ: To that point, Leader Hakeem Jeffries is meeting with a bipartisan group of congressional leadership to talk about heightened security for lawmakers. What do you think public officials and those protecting them need to be doing right now?

WACKROW: Well, it all comes down to a level of protective intelligence and situational awareness. We know that this individual, again, in this case, this was not an impulsive act. This was a long drawn out, well-planned, very calculated, set of events that he put into play. And really what it speaks to, Boris, is this, this textbook pathway to violence where we have people who have grievances towards each other. They have violent ideations. They research the type of attack that they want to undertake, and then they prepare for it.

Again, when we look back at this incident, it is a textbook pathway to violence. Mindful of that, lawmakers working with local, state, and federal law enforcement officials need to understand how do they pick up on the early warning behavioral anomalies of individuals, whether they're veiled threats or direct threats against them, and put the appropriate control measures in place.

It's not an easy task. It is not without cost, but we know what the ultimate cost is when our lawmakers lose their lives. So, this is a necessity right now to bolster the personal security of our elected officials, both at their offices as well as at their personal residences because we see the consequences and the order of consequences that can happen.

SANCHEZ: Jonathan Wackrow, thanks so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Let's get some legal perspective now. We have Harry Litman with us. He's a former U.S. attorney and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General. He's now Host of "Talking Feds" podcast. Harry, what did you think of these federal charges and are you expecting more to be added, or the death penalty ultimately to be sought here?

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: That's the big question with the Feds, Brianna.

[14:10:00]

They can bring the death penalty. The acting U.S. attorney says it's premature. I do expect them. We know that Trump himself has exhorted the DOJ to bring them. We know, he said, here, we want to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. And we know Minnesota cannot bring death penalty charges. The early charges on both the Fed side and the state side were simply to be able to hold him and quickly each -- I think Minnesota will bring a first degree murder charge as well, because they'll find premeditation. But that didn't have to happen yet, and it doesn't carry the death penalty under Minnesota law.

The big question to me, Brianna, typically, Feds and state authorities investigate this together, and you would expect the states to have the first kind of try at the defendant because it was such a state crime on the ground. But we know that Trump took the occasion to actually call Governor Walz grossly incompetent and terrible, and it may well be that his DOJ is going to try to grab it and take it first and go for the death penalty. And that could make things tricky in terms of coordination going forward.

KEILAR: What are you looking for in these court hearings today?

LITMAN: I think they'll be very simple. He'll come in, do you understand the charges against you? No issue yet of detention, but he will be detained in the next hearing. You will have the federal attorney explain what the charges are. And in particular, I think you'll hear that attorney emphasize stalking because the stalking aspect of this, along with firearms, is what does give rise to the possibility of the federal death penalty. But it'll be a simple sort of boilerplate affair. Here he is, here are the charges, see you soon for a detention hearing.

KEILAR: The Acting U.S. attorney said he's not seen anything that would clearly identify what motivated the suspect here. What do you think? And how important is the motive in this? LITMAN: Well, look, the specific motive will be interesting in terms of all the politics. We know a long list of 70 people, particularly harrowing. They see many of them to have been involved in the -- in abortion politics from the pro-choice side. What's it -- the big difference in any of these cases, Brianna, is was it one person or was it premeditated? So in a sense, in terms of eligibility for the highest crime under either state or federal law, it's already clear.

Now, then, there will inevitably be a possible manifesto or other media. We saw you mention the one to his children. It will fill in the profile more. But the basic idea that this is a killer who was looking to terrorize, had political motivations, and had a lot of planning and premeditation, we know that much already. And legally, that's what triggers the highest penalties under both Minnesota and federal law, federal being the death penalty.

KEILAR: Harry, real quick before I let you go here, the suspect was cooperative. That's what law enforcement said, as they apprehended him. We also know investigators were interviewing Boelter. Does that mean that he's talking?

LITMAN: Boy, I don't know. And typically, you would expect someone like this to invoke right to counsel, but obviously these kinds of situations, somebody has snapped. You saw the message to his family, he is completely dead to rights. The evidence is overwhelming. It could be. If he asked for counsel, the first thing counsel would say is, do not talk to anyone. But they're trying here. It would be legal. If he does it voluntarily, we may well see it.

KEILAR: All right. Harry, thank you so much. And I do just want to let our viewers know that we just got a statement from Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, who were both shot by -- who were both shot in Minnesota in this shooting rampage of lawmakers. And they say they're incredibly lucky to be alive. I want to read the full statement here. They say, first and foremost, and this appears to be from Yvette Hoffman.

First and foremost, John and I hold a deep and profound gratitude for the work of our law enforcement agencies and the public for their help in bringing the suspect to justice while diligently keeping our community safe during this extremely difficult and senseless event. John and I are both incredibly lucky to be alive. We continue our healing journey and are humbled by the outpouring of love and support our family has received from across the state and our nation. There is never a place for senseless political violence and loss of life. We are devastated by the loss of Melissa and Mark. That would be Melissa and Mark Hortman, and our hearts go out to all those who knew and loved them both.

[14:15:00]

We are always at our best when we unite together. Of course, both Yvette and her husband John, a state Senator there in Minnesota, were shot multiple times, went through surgery, but did survive, obviously, though they have been through so much. We will continue to monitor how they're doing and we'll be right back with more news. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We are monitoring another wave of violence in the Middle East as Iran and Israel unleash heavy bombardments in their escalating conflict. Israel now confirming that it attacked Iran's state television channel. Reporters are there showing the fiery aftermath in Tehran.

[14:20:00]

I want you to watch what it looked like as the strike actually took place during a live broadcast. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: [Foreign Language]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Just about an hour ago, Israeli officials say they were tracking new missiles fired by Tehran. Residents in Tel Aviv were told briefly to seek shelter. Those alerts have since been lifted. The conflict in the Middle East is expected to dominate discussions as G7 leaders meet today in Calgary, Canada. CNN's Kristen Holmes is there, live monitoring developments at the G7 Summit. And Kristen, we've learned that leaders are working on this joint statement, addressing the Iran-Israel conflict. But sources indicate that President Trump will likely not sign off on it. What are you hearing?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. So in this statement, that would come from all of the G7 leaders, essentially, it would call for de-escalation for both Israel and Iran. It would say that Iran could never obtain a nuclear weapon, never develop a nuclear weapon, and that Israel has its right -- has the right to defend itself. Now, all of this might sound familiar to you because this is a lot of what we're hearing from President Trump himself.

But we are told that right now, it's unlikely he's going to sign this. Now, officials are still holding out hope. There are going to be more sessions tonight, more closed-door sessions where some of these officials hope they can convince him. But it seems very unlikely, particularly given the conversation I just had with a senior administration official, who said why would he sign this when this is what he's already working on? He's already said this and he's setting the tone and the messaging.

And when I went back and asked, well, what about a sign of unity? These are our oldest allies. What about just getting on board for that? They responded to me saying, well, we think it's a sign of unity that he showed up here at all and is having these meetings at their request. It's a very different way of looking at the G7, one of the kind of pillars of presidential politics for years as they've had these allied relationships, them saying instead that the unity is just coming, walking in the front door, not necessarily doing anything with that. We do know that one of their biggest goals during these meetings are to get trade deals. The other part of this that I just think we should point out as we see the escalation happening in Iran and in Israel and across the Mid East, is one of the things that Donald Trump said, which was that Iran was reaching out via intermediaries to try and de- escalate. He also kind of pushed back saying, they should have already done this. They should have already come to the table.

One of the things we continue to report on is the fact that Donald Trump's administration, there's still a lot of hopes that they can get an Iran nuclear deal out of all of this. They could sit down and have those talks that were supposed to happen, the sixth round of them last Sunday in Oman, that obviously didn't happen after the escalation we saw. But they are still hoping to get to the table here. So that was a little bit of breaking news to hear that Iranians were reaching out via intermediaries to try and de-escalate the situation and potentially come to the table to have those talks with the U.S.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for the reporting. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, let's get some more perspective now on this very important G7 Summit. We are joined by former Senior DHS Official, Kevin Carroll, and Kevin, you've held many other titles as well as in the military and at the CIA as well. But I wanted to ask you first off, this pretty incredible headline, two sources telling CNN that President Trump has rejected a plan by the Israelis to kill Iran's supreme leader. That over the weekend the Israelis actually had an opportunity to kill Ayatollah Khamenei. What do you think about that? And, what's the effect of him talking about it?

KEVIN CARROLL, FORMER SENIOR DHS OFFICIAL: Well, I think the president shouldn't be talking about it. The Israelis, obviously, shared that information with him on a bilateral basis. It has to be based on extremely sensitive source, revelatory intelligence. Letting the Iranians know in public that the Iranians have that kind of access to the supreme leader, lets the Iranians adjust the security around that leader, whether it's communication security or the personnel that are guarding him. So even if the president's advice was actually good advice, that's probably not good for a democracy to get into the assassination game because a free society is more at risk in that sort of thing than a police state like Iran. He should really have kept his trap shut.

KEILAR: Is that real -- is it really Israel though, listening to the U.S.? As you read that, is that what the dynamics would be like, that Israel would have an ability to do something like this and then would actually be pulled back by the caller, by the U.S.?

CARROLL: Yeah. My understanding of the government was that the Israelis would generally inform us about things, but not ask us for our permission. And they're a sovereign state, that makes sense. I think, President Trump just always insists on being the main actor in the play. Theodore Roosevelt's daughter said that her father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the baby at every christening, the bride at every wedding. And Trump is sort of the same way. It always has to be about him. KEILAR: Trump told ABC News that it's possible the U.S. could get involved in the conflict here. What role do you see the U.S. playing?

CARROLL: I'm certain we're giving intelligence support to the Israelis.

[14:25:00]

I'm certain that we're giving ammunition resupply, especially for precision guided munitions and things like that. I read that a lot of our in-air refueling tanker fleet has been flying east, so perhaps we're going to give in-air refueling support to the Israelis, which would give their fighter aircraft more loiter time over targets in Tehran and would allow them to carry a more and heavier ordinance.

KEILAR: Brett McGurk raised this issue of -- well, he was asked actually about these bunker buster bombs that might be used, which obviously would be a capability of the U.S.' to lend to Israel, but that it's something that might require too much lead time in terms of training. Well, what is your understanding?

CARROLL: I think Brett is exactly right. I mean, you would -- they're expensive. There's not that many of them and you'd want to have the Israeli F-15 pilots, or F-16 or F-35 pilots practice dropping similar munitions before they did so in combat conditions. So, it's probably the horse s left the barn as far as that is concerned.

KEILAR: Is it clear to you what Israel's end goal is here?

CARROLL: I think the destruction of Iran's nuclear program, and whether they can get that done without the bunker busters and a big strategic bombing campaign, we'll see. They've showed a lot of ingenuity so far in using drones and other things like that. They appear to have complete air dominance right now to do as many tactical fighter missions as they need to. So, I would give the Israelis the benefit of the doubt here, that they know what they're doing on the basis of their performance thus far.

KEILAR: Kevin, great to have you and to get your insights. Really appreciate it.

CARROLL: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: And next, we have some new data on the immigrants who have been targeted as part of President Trump's immigration crackdown. Plus, a juror in the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial dismissed. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)