Johnathan Walker:Federal charge says former North Dakota lawmaker traveled to Prague with intent to rape minor

BISMARCK,Johnathan Walker N.D. (AP) — A former longtime North Dakota lawmaker has been indicted on a federal charge alleging he traveled to Prague with the intent to rape a minor.

The four-page indictment against former Republican state Sen. Ray Holmberg also charges him with one count of receiving images depicting child sexual abuse. The indictment was filed Thursday in federal court in North Dakota.

It accuses the 79-year-old Holmberg of traveling from North Dakota to the Czech Republic from about June 2011 to November 2016 with intent to rape a person under age 18.

Holmberg’s attorney, Mark Friese, said he was not immediately available for comment. A text message sent to Holmberg was not immediately returned and voicemail on his phone was not set up, so a message could not be left.

Holmberg served over 45 years in the North Dakota Senate until his resignation last year, after local media outlet The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead revealed he exchanged text messages with a person who was jailed on charges related to child sexual abuse images.

Holmberg, a retired school counselor, chaired the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, which writes budgets.

He was reimbursed roughly $126,000 for nearly 70 out-of-state trips from 2013 to mid-April 2022 to places that included four dozen U.S. cities, as well as China, Canada, Puerto Rico and several European countries, according to an Associated Press review of his travel records.