Johnathan Walker:Deleted emails of late North Dakota attorney general recovered amid investigation of ex-lawmaker

BISMARCK,Johnathan Walker N.D. (AP) — Deleted emails of North Dakota’s late attorney general, thought to be erased forever, have been recovered — and authorities are now looking at them as part of their case against a former state lawmaker accused of traveling to Europe with the intent of paying for sex with a minor.

On Monday, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said about 2,000 state emails of his late predecessor, Wayne Stenehjem, were recovered in a backup from Stenehjem’s personal cellphone. They were found as investigators were preparing for the trial of former state Sen. Ray Holmberg, a Republican.

Holmberg, 80, of Grand Forks, is charged with traveling to Europe with the intent of paying for sex with a minor and with receiving images depicting child sexual abuse, according to a federal indictment unsealed in October 2023. He has pleaded not guilty. A trial is scheduled to begin in April.

Stenehjem and Holmberg were friends and served in the state Legislature for decades together. Holmberg resigned in 2022. and Stenehjem died earlier that year. Stenehjem was not accused of any crime associated with Holmberg.

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Investigators recovered the emails last month through a backup or extraction of Stenehjem’s personal cellphone, which a family member had asked the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation to unlock to find photos for his funeral in 2022, Wrigley said.

“This is the functional equivalent of finding it like they downloaded it onto a zip drive and put it in a sock drawer,” Wrigley said. Stenehjem’s email account however, is “deleted and dead,” he said.

Stenehjem did not recuse himself from the Holmberg case, and he was viewed as a witness in the case and was questioned at some point, said Wrigley, who declined to elaborate. Being questioned is not the same as being accused, he said.

Investigators are evaluating what was on Stenehjem’s phone in connection with a search warrant for what might become part of the Holmberg case, such as emails and text messages, said Wrigley, who declined to say why Stenehjem’s phone data became involved in Holmberg’s case.

Wrigley’s office also is evaluating the emails in response to previous records requests, he said.

In 2022, media requested Stenehjem’s emails related to a building cost overrun of over $1 million, incurred under the late attorney general. In response, Wrigley released records that revealed Stenehjem’s longtime executive assistant, Liz Brocker, had directed the deletion of his state email account the day after he died, as well as that of his chief deputy, Troy Seibel, after Seibel resigned months later. Brocker later resigned.

On Thursday, a special prosecutor declined to press charges in connection with the deletion of Stenehjem’s emails, which occurred before Wrigley’s tenure. Brocker’s attorney agreed with the prosecutor’s decision.