Copies of deleted e-mail of late AG Stenehjem identified knowledge acquired in relationship with Holmberg probe

Attorney General Drew Wrigley said in a letter to a county prosecutor that the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation found out on Feb. 7 that a cellphone extraction application application may possibly have automatically copied and saved the contents of Stenehjem’s particular cellphone. 

The e-mail became the aim of public intrigue immediately after Stenehjem died in office in January 2022. The previous legal professional general’s govt assistant, Liz Brocker, immediately asked IT personnel to delete Stenehjem’s whole email account. Very last week, Mountrail County State’s Lawyer Wade Enget concluded no criminal rates were warranted for the deletion of the email messages.

For two decades, the state believed the email messages could not be recovered right after evaluate by the condition Facts Technology Division, Microsoft and an outdoors pro.

But new info has arrive to mild through an investigation into Holmberg, a previous lawmaker who was a near affiliate of Stenehjem, Wrigley explained to the North Dakota Watch.

Not lengthy just after his loss of life, Stenehjem’s relatives asked for support from BCI staff to unlock the previous legal professional general’s private mobile phone to recuperate his photos, Wrigley wrote in the Friday letter to Enget.

At the time, the BCI didn’t have the engineering to get into the cellphone, so they left the issue alone. Condition law enforcement tried using yet again to unlock the telephone about a year later — in February 2023 — with improved technologies, the letter indicates.

After some technical complications, the agency efficiently accessed the phone that summer months. The BCI at that level returned the mobile phone to the Stenehjems.

The agency educated Wrigley in February that the software package made use of to unlock the mobile phone routinely copied and saved the phone’s details.

“We have a mirror impression, a digital file of every little thing in that cellphone as of the time it was accessed with this regulation enforcement technological innovation,” Wrigley claimed Monday.

Considering the fact that Stenehjem experienced made use of his own cell phone to accessibility his point out e-mail account, the BCI ended up with backed-up copies of Stenehjem’s e-mails.

The point out received a federal warrant to look as a result of the unit in relationship to the ongoing investigation into Holmberg, Wrigley claimed. Stenehjem was interviewed as a witness in the inquiry prior to his loss of life, in accordance to Wrigley.

“Having a warrant for somebody’s telephone is not an indication that that individual is under investigation,” he mentioned.

In get for the warrant to be accredited, investigators had to display that proof relevant to a crime may be uncovered on Stenehjem’s cellular phone, he included. The affidavit for the search warrant is less than seal, Wrigley stated.

There are at minimum all-around 2,000 e-mails on the cell phone and 1000’s of textual content messages, Wrigley stated. Investigators may be capable to evaluate other records on the product relying on the parameters of the warrant.

“We do not know what’s in there yet,” Wrigley mentioned.

The state secured another piece of digital tools as proof as part of the investigation this early morning, in accordance to Wrigley. He would not say what it is.

Holmberg, a Republican from Grand Forks, was indicted in October 2023, with federal court docket documents alleging that Holmberg repeatedly traveled from North Dakota to Prague, Czech Republic, to have intercourse with little ones.

He resigned from the North Dakota Legislature in 2022 right after serving for much more than 45 decades.

The indictment says the allegations transpired among June 2011 via November 2016.

He has pleaded not guilty to the expenses. A trial is scheduled for April 29 in Fargo.

Enget, the Mountrail County state’s attorney, will be provided copies of the email messages, Wrigley reported.

He stated Enget was knowledgeable that information from the cell phone was recovered prior to his selection not to go after charges associated to the deletion of Stenehjem’s emails.

Enget on Monday said he was not aware the state was arranging to ship him the e-mail.

He managed he was only requested to assessment the results of the report by the Montana Division of Prison Investigation, which was asked for by Wrigley in 2022.

“I never know under what authority I would have to appear at these,” Enget stated.

Information that Stenehjem’s email messages have been deleted by condition staff members grew to become general public subsequent media open up data requests related to an around-spending budget making task spearheaded by Stenehjem’s administration.