ND Attorney General Drew Wrigley reacts to Stenehjem’s emails being discovered

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – What was once thought to be lost, has been found. North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley says the emails of the former AG, Wayne Stenehjem have been found on an electronic copy of Wayne’s old phone after his death.

“As a result of this investigatory find there may be people who conclude it might be in their interest to visit what they said to law enforcement thus far and I’ll leave it at that.” said Wrigley.

Those emails were thought to be lost after his account was deleted. This all came about from a family member giving the phone to BCI and asking if they could get family photos from it.

Wrigley says it took time, even a year before they could get the phone unlocked. And only recently it came to light that those emails were found on the phone. According to Wrigley, he is told there are around a couple of thousands of emails that are tied to Stenehjem’s nd.gov email address on the electronic copy.

“It was an electronic, perfect mirror image of my predecessor’s phone and that’s the long short of it.” said Wrigley.

This is a breakthrough for multiple factors, as there are numerous open records requests tied to Stenehjem’s emails, a federal warrant and the Ray Holmberg investigation. Former state senator Holmberg was a close friend of Stenehjem, who has been accused of traveling for sex with a minor and receiving child sex abuse images.

Wrigley shared his thoughts on these emails coming to light.

“Truth, you can crush it with dirt all you want, it’s going to rise and it’s going to come to light.” said Wrigley.