North Dakota Republican: “No One Is Ever Too Young”
While the Republican controlled North Dakota legislature was passing a bill to ban LGBTQ books, one of it’s members was negotiating a plea deal for raping young boys. Republican closet case Ray Holmberg was the longest-serving state legislator in the country. Now he's getting total kid glove treatment.
The QAnon part of Trump’s coalition is based around a baseless conspiracy theory that there is a secret, global cabal of powerful individuals engaged in child trafficking— and worse (like using children’s body parts to stay young or something insane like that); Michael Flynn promotes that at MAGA rallies. Followers of QAnon— like Flynn and Marjorie Traitor Green— claim that these [non-existent] prerps are part of a deep state working against Señor T, whom they see as a savior figure fighting to expose and dismantle this alleged cabal. They believe— or claim to believe— that a group of elites, including politicians (RINOs and Democrats), business leaders and celebrities, are not only involved in a global child sex trafficking ring but that they control world events and governments, manipulating them for their gain. Should these people be allowed to vote in elections? Among their other nonsense, they predict an “imminent” event called The Storm, during which this cabal will be exposed and brought to justice. This will lead to “The Great Awakening,” where people will realize the truth about these elites and the alleged deep state.
Linking RINOs and Democrats to heinous crimes like child trafficking dehumanizes and demonizes them, justifying extreme opposition to those they say are part of the cabal, creating a clear moral dichotomy of good versus evil. Think about Edgar Welch, the 28 year old Trump-supporting moron from North Carolina who drove up to DC and shot up the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria believing it was a hub of child sex trafficking. (Welch was sentenced to 4 years in prison but was released in 3, in time to vote for Trump in 2020.)
Most of the Republicans yelling the loudest about child sex crimes seem to be projecting, attributing horrific and frightening thoughts onto others. For example, virtually all of the gays in politics who are out of the closet (or were never in it) are Democrats. Pretty much all of the closet cases are conservatives, which generally means Republicans.
Last year we took a look at North Dakota Republican state Sen. Ray Holmberg (then 79)— a retired school guidance counselor and the longest-serving state legislator in the country. He was forced to retire when a scandal began to break about him flying back and forth to Prague— a beautiful city far from Grand Forks— to have sex with young boys, so young that what he did was rape, even though he was paying them. If he was in the Czech Republic he could be charged with raping a child. But in the U.S. he can only be charged with traveling to Prague with the intent to rape a minor. He served more than 45 years in the state legislature and he deserves to serve the rest of his life in prison. Good Republican that he is, some his trips abroad were paid for with taxpayer money.
At first he pleaded not guilty to the sex tourism charge and to another charge about receiving pornography of underage boys (including naked pictures of two prepubescent boys) being abused. In late June, the North Dakota Monitor reported that Senator Holmberg, now 80, has cut a deal, pleading guilty to a child sex tourism charge (traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual activities) in return for the porno charges being dropped. “Prosecutors,” wrote Amy Dalrymple, “also agree to seek a sentence on the low end of sentencing guidelines.” That probably will amount to 3 years… instead of 30.
On Thursday he pleaded guilty in a federal court. Jack Dura reported that “In the plea agreement, Holmberg acknowledged that from around June 2011 to November 2016, he “repeatedly traveled from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Prague, Czech Republic with a motivating purpose of engaging in commercial sex with adolescent-age individuals under the age of 18 years.”
Holmberg has been under numerous conditions of release, including travel restrictions, location monitoring and the surrender of his passport.
On Friday, the pretrial services officer filed a report saying Holmberg hadn’t met those conditions.
She wrote that he was verbally reprimanded and reminded of his pretrial release conditions after he left his residence once and also visited an adult novelty store, each without approval. He also “continuously” accessed the internet for unapproved reasons and did not allow updates and maintenance to the monitoring software on his cellular device, she said.
In May, Holmberg admitted to using alcohol after testing positive. Later that month, he was told to remove an unapproved iPad from his home, and the judge added a condition restricting Holmberg’s access to electronic devices.
Since then, he continued to access the internet for unapproved reasons, the officer wrote.
“Due to the statutory mandate of detention, respectfully, the defendant is not viewed as a suitable candidate for self-surrender,” U.S. Pretrial Services Officer Christine Argall wrote.
Holmberg’s attorney, Mark Friese, declined an interview request. Holmberg was not arrested.
Former U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon said the report is a routine filing but the alleged violations are serious, given the nature of Holmberg’s case.
“I am particularly troubled by the idea that he’s accessing the internet on unapproved devices that are not being monitored. That is really concerning when you’ve got somebody facing the charges of the type he was facing,” Purdon said. It is not unusual that Holmberg wasn’t arrested, he added.
…Records obtained by The Associated Press showed Holmberg took dozens of trips throughout the U.S. and to other countries since 1999. Destinations included cities in more than 30 states, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico and Norway.
Earlier this year, the North Dakota School Boards Association returned about $142,000 to the state and ended its role in the Global Bridges teacher exchange program months after releasing travel records following Holmberg’s indictment that showed he utilized state funds when he traveled to Prague and other European cities in 2011, 2018 and 2019.
It’s unclear whether the misconduct alleged by authorities occurred during any of those trips.
The factors in Holmberg’s case make it arguably the most significant political scandal in North Dakota history, Purdon said.
“You have a very high-profile politician. You have literally the worst allegation you possibly could come up with, the sexual abuse and rape of a child,” he said. “And then you have the idea that tax dollars paid for the plane ticket.”
Holmberg, who traveled to Prague at least 14 times as a state senator to rape children between 2011 and 2021, won’t be sentenced until after the election, saving the GOP more embarrassment. The U.S. Attorney’s office has said they will just be asking for 3 years, despite the number of times he violated his pre-trial release agreement. One of his cronies, Nicholas Morgan-Derosier, who did far less than Holmberg— but was never a high-ranking Republican state senator— was sentenced to 40 years in prison for possessing, receiving and distributing child sex abuse materials, but not for abusing any children. When he wasn’t raping children in Prague, Holmberg— who still maintains he never did anything that was really illegal— was paying young men at the University of North Dakota to have sex with him. Republicans are so weird.
MAGA!
Too bad he didn't change his name to trump. he'd be golden.
They're like cockroaches. If you see one, that means many others are hiding.