Dossier mode
The Holmberg Files
The same investigation, restaged one beat at a time. Drive it with the arrow keys, space, or autoplay. Nothing is cut from the piece — long runs are split across frames. Read the full investigation or open the Too Big to Jail hub.
The Holmberg files.
A 45-year GOP state senator is in prison for traveling to Prague to abuse children. His friend the attorney general deleted the voicemails. And the Trump DOJ won't release the interview transcripts.
The conviction is adjudicated fact. The obstruction finding and the DOJ's records refusal are fact. What's posed, not asserted, is who else knew — the question the sealed transcripts would help answer.
Living associates were interviewed, none charged, all deny knowledge — denials carried in full. We document the withholding; we do not declare a proven cover-up.
A 45-year Republican state senator is in federal prison for traveling to Prague to abuse children.
Ray Holmberg chaired ND Senate Appropriations across a 45-year career, resigned in 2022, and pleaded guilty to traveling to Prague (2011–2016; ~14 trips through 2021) for illicit sexual contact with minors at a brothel catering to men seeking sex with adolescent boys. On March 26, 2025, Judge Daniel Hovland called it 'egregious and despicable' and imposed the 10-year statutory maximum — 3x the guideline. Adjudicated, announced by the DOJ itself.
More than a year after sentencing, the Trump DOJ refused to release the interview transcripts.
The Forum requested the federal interview transcripts under FOIA on Oct 10, 2025. In a denial dated Aug 20, 2026, the DOJ Criminal Division refused — disclosure 'could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,' with no 'overriding public interest.' The case was closed; the man had pleaded guilty and been sentenced. Withheld anyway.
The AG says his predecessor — Holmberg's close friend — obstructed the case by deleting voicemails.
ND AG Drew Wrigley has said the late Wayne Stenehjem 'obstructed' the child-sex-crime investigation into his friend Holmberg by deleting voicemails — one, per a prosecutor: 'Wayne, this is my burner phone… I'm in big trouble. Don't tell anyone.' Stenehjem told investigators (Dec 2021) he'd spoken to Holmberg once; phone records showed three calls. Stenehjem died Jan 2022. The obstruction finding is the sitting AG's own characterization.
Associates were interviewed and emails documented — but the living deny any knowledge, and none is charged.
BCI files documented Holmberg–Gjovig emails ('No one is ever (too) young… remember Prague'); Gjovig condemns Holmberg and denies knowledge of the crimes. Jim Poolman, questioned ~30 min in Sept 2023, said: 'I was not involved, knew nothing of his heinous activities and have done nothing illegal.' Others (Nick Hacker, Paul Traynor) rebuffed or reported Holmberg. Being interviewed is not being accused; we carry the denials and assert nothing about what any associate knew.
Why seal the files after a guilty plea and a maximum sentence? Posed, not answered.
Withholding interview transcripts after a guilty plea and the statutory maximum doesn't protect a child — the crime is adjudicated. What it plausibly protects is the unanswered set: who else knew, who was warned, how a powerful legislator operated for a decade. We don't assert a proven cover-up, and FOIA privacy exemptions are routine. But the 'overriding public interest' the DOJ says is missing is exactly what a closed case with a convicted official + an obstruction finding would supply. SOME SMOKE — a real question about the sealed files, not a proven conspiracy.
Transparency is cheapest to refuse when the case is closed.
A convicted 45-year lawmaker, a 'burner phone' plea to the state's top prosecutor, and a paper trail that mentions Prague are not private family matters — they're a record of how power, friendship, and silence operated. That's why it's a Too Big to Jail story: the principal went to prison, but the machinery around him didn't, and the files that would show how it worked are sealed. It also lands against the movement's loudest theme — the same politics that built a 'groomer' panic produced this case, then watched a GOP attorney general delete the evidence.