North Dakota's longest-serving state senator, Republican Sen. Ray Holmberg, was indicted yesterday on Federal charges of "travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity and receipt of child pornography," after his arrest Monday at his home in Grand Forks, ND. Holmberg resigned from office last spring, and is pleading not guilty. The Associated Press has the report:
"Prosecutors said in a statement that Holmberg repeatedly traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic from June 2011 to November 2016 for the purpose of paying for sex with a person under 18 years old. The indictment, which also suggests Holmberg used aliases, says he received and attempted to receive images that depict child sexual abuse from November 2012 to March 2013.
Holmberg served more than 45 years in the North Dakota Senate until his resignation last year, after local media outlet The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead revealed he exchanged dozens of text messages with a person who was jailed on charges related to child sexual abuse images. [snip]
Holmberg was reimbursed roughly $126,000 for nearly 70 out-of-state trips from 2013 through mid-April 2022 to places that included four dozen U.S. cities, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico and several European countries, according to an AP review of his travel records.
Law enforcement searched his Grand Forks home in November 2021, seizing video discs and additional items." (our emphasis)
Holmberg was first elected to office in 1976. You can be certain that Holmberg's 70 out-of-state trips had some sexual diversions involved. You also can be certain that Holmberg was a loyal, right-wing Christofascist to have survived that long in Republican / Forced Birth / Shooter Party politics. It's axiomatic that his political philosophy fits the vast majority of sexual predators and abusers in elected office. After all, look who their party leader is.
(photo: Your pervy Republican ex-state senator/ Official portrait)
