(PHOTO / CBS MINNESOTA)
MINNEAPOLIS (KFGO/CBS Minnesota) – The day his son’s killer was sentenced to life in prison, J. Carroll Hortman blasted Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche in the courtroom for, in his view, failing their family.
Now, Hortman and two of his children are pushing to stop Blanche from formally taking on the role of the country’s top cop.
Blanche was the final decision-maker when it came to the federal case against Vance Boelter, the man who attempted to kill Sen. John Hoffman, his wife Yvette and their daughter Hope before assassinating Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman.
Mark Hortman’s father J. Carroll, his sister Lisa Hortman Bean and his brother Lee Hortman all describe themselves as conservatives. All three believe that Blanche and the U.S. Department of Justice avoided pursuing capital punishment partially because Boelter’s victims were all democrats.
“If Mark and Melissa had been a different party, the death penalty would have applied to their killer,” Hortman Bean said.
J. Carroll and Lee Hortman echoed that sentiment in court on July 23, the day that Boelter was sentenced. Lee Hortman believes that Blanche’s ongoing fight to earn confirmation in Washington also played a role.
“I’m of the opinion that Blanche did this purely because he was afraid to have a death penalty case hanging over his head while he’s getting confirmed,” Lee Hortman said.
J. Carroll Hortman — a lifelong Republican — said that he believes Blanche ignored President Trump’s January 2025 executive order. Just days into his second term, President Trump directed state attorneys general and the U.S. attorney general to “…pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.”
The president has consistently pushed for the death penalty, with 13 of the last 16 federal executions happening at the end of his first term. Prior to 2020, just three executions had been carried out since 1988.
J. Carroll Hortman said that he believed both Blanche and Mr. Trump let politics get in the way of holding Boelter accountable.
“Todd Blanche, that’s all he was thinking about, they were Democrats and they didn’t matter. The truth is, President Trump, whom I voted for every time he ran, he disregarded it,” J. Carroll Hortman said.
When the case against Boelter began, Pam Bondi was the U.S. attorney general and Joe Thompson was the U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota. Thompson indicated that it would take months for prosecutors to come to a determination on the death penalty, a decision that is ultimately in the hands of the U.S. attorney general.
When it came time for that decision, Blanche had taken over as acting attorney general and Daniel Rosen was the U.S. attorney for Minnesota. Rosen said that he and his team were in lockstep with Blanche, ultimately agreeing that the best path forward was a plea deal with Boelter that would take the death penalty off the table on the sole condition that Boelter agreed to life in prison.
“The truth is when you have a defendant who is prepared to plead guilty, take consecutive life terms plus, to ensure that he never sees freedom again in his entire life, that is an opportunity that we just could not pass up,” Rosen said on June 11, the day Boelter changed his plea.
J. Carroll and Lee Hortman and Lisa Hortman Bean said that they were shocked by the plea agreement. J. Carroll Hortman showed WCCO three emails that he wrote to Blanche, urging reconsideration; he said he never got a response.
On the day Boelter was sentenced, a spokesperson for Blanche’s office provided a statement to WCCO that reads in part “…even when capital punishment may appear to be the just sentence, significant legal or evidentiary obstacles may leave no legally sustainable basis to seek it.”
The statement indicated potential legal obstacles to securing the death penalty, which is contradictory to what Rosen said on June 11.
“This case as charged was certainly death penalty eligible and we would have prevailed in that,” Rosen said.
J. Carroll and Lee Hortman and Lisa Hortman Bean said that they have all written to their respective state’s senators asking them to vote against Blanche. They said none of them — representatives from North Carolina and Florida — have responded.
Both of Minnesota’s Democratic senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, confirmed that they will vote against Blanche, but their press teams did not acknowledge the death penalty aspect in their reasonings.
Currently, there is no confirmation vote on the calendar, though a spokesperson from Smith said it’s possible it could happen as soon as Friday, Aug. 7.
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