A GOP state senator in North Dakota has resigned following a flurry of news stories over texts he exchanged with a man now in jail for child pornography charges and an alleged attempt to transport children with the intent of sexual contact.
Sen Ray Holmberg of the North Dakota state Senate sent an email to local reporters on Monday confirming his resignation. The email was published online by a reporter for The Forum and WDAY, two local news outlets.
"Recent news stories have become a distraction for the important work of the legislative assembly during its interim meetings. I want to do what I can, within my power, to lessen such distractions," wrote Mr Holmberg. "Consequently, in respect for the institution and its other 140 members, I shall resign my Senate seat effective June 1, 2022. This date will give District #17 leaders enough time to go through the process and select a replacement."
Mr Holmberg also faced the reappearance of a 2020 claim of sexual assault from a man who had claimed in a lengthy Twitter thread that he had awoken after staying in the senator’s condo to the Republican elected official committing an unconsensual sexual act with his genitalia. A New Hampshire state representative and others have called for the claim to be reexamined in recent days; Mr Holmberg never faced any criminal charges over the accusation.
“That the two were acquainted and spent time together is not in dispute. Any accusations of inappropriate behavior we dispute,” Mr Holmberg’s attorney told a reporter for The Forum and WDAY.
The 79-year-old state senator had just last month announced his plans to retire at the end of his term.
Mr Holmberg’s connection to Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier, the man jailed on numerous child pornography and sex charges, is not yet publicly known as the contents of the 72 text messages he exchanged with Mr Morgan-Derosier have not been revealed. The senator has claimed that Mr Morgan-Derosier, who owns a yard care and patio installment business, had performed work at his house and said the texts were related to “a variety of things” including that work, according to The Telegraph, a local newspaper.
Democrats in the state legislature had called on him to release the texts, but Mr Holmberg claimed they had been deleted from his phone. He previously resigned his seat on a committee as the fallout from the initial news report began.
Mr Morgan-Derosier’s involvement in the alleged distribution of child pornography was reportedly discovered after a judge ordered him to suspend his business’s work in the state while he was under investigation for defrauding customers, which he ignored resulting in authorities finding thumb drives and other data storage containing the illegal content during an unrelated search of his home.
