North Dakota Democratic chair calls for immediate release of Stenehjem emails

The chair of the North Democratic-NPL Party called Thursday for the immediate release of emails recently recovered from the late Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s cellphone data.

Drew Wrigley, Stenehjem’s successor, confirmed Monday that investigators discovered state emails previously thought to have been deleted. At least 2,000 state emails were recovered through an unrelated investigation, Wrigley said.

Democratic-NPL Chair Adam Goldwyn urged the public for continued pressure to investigate the deletion of the emails, which was ordered immediately after Stenehjem’s January 2022 death.

“We need to see these emails immediately, they belong to the people of North Dakota,” Goldwyn said in a statement. “The Bismarck good ol’ boys club can’t keep us in the dark.” 

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Wrigley said law enforcement accessed Stenehjem’s cellphone data through a federal search warrant that is part of an investigation into former Sen. Ray Holmberg, who is charged in federal court with child sex tourism and child pornography offenses. 

Wrigley said Thursday his office will release the emails to the public as soon as possible without jeopardizing the ongoing federal investigation.

“Just as soon as we can do so responsibly, we’re going to be sure to do so,” said Wrigley, adding that his office will “honor and probably exceed” the requirements of the North Dakota open records law.

Holmberg, a close associate of Stenehjem, is set to go on trial in late April. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Wrigley has said that having a warrant for a person’s cellphone does not necessarily indicate the person is under investigation.

Mountrail County State’s Attorney Wade Enget concluded last week that no criminal charges were warranted for the state employees who deleted Stenehjem’s email account.