A Minnesota Republican state senator has been charged with soliciting a minor after he was arrested on Wednesday.
Justin David Eichorn, who serves in the state’s upper house, was arrested after communicating online with a girl who he believed to be a 17-year-old soliciting for sex work. In reality he was chatting to an undercover police officer.
Police have outlined that they placed online advertisements offering sexual services. When the politician answered the advertisement a police officer posing as a teenager allegedly informed him that she was only seventeen.
Police allege that Eichorn was undeterred and proceeded to ask about pricing and various sex act he’d want to girl to perform. Police arrested him without incident when he turned up for a meeting with the fictional sex worker.
Eichorn was charged with one count of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, federal prosecutors said.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office has no tolerance for public officials who violate federal law — particularly those laws meant to protect children,” said acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick.
“I am grateful to the Bloomington Police Department, to the FBI and to all law enforcement officers who use undercover operations to identify and arrest child sex predators to prevent them from abusing real children.”
Eichorn’s colleagues in the state’s legislature from both sides of politics have called for his resignation.
The politician was a member of a group who recently wanted to introduce a bill that would formally list Trump Derangement Syndrome as a recognised mental illness.
He previous co-authored a bill that proposed that any women accused of being transgender while playing sport or using a public bathroom would be required to get a doctor’s statement proving that they were born female.
