State lawmaker demands I turn over any information on surveillance devices I may have planted on him
MINOT, N.D. — Back in May, state Sen. Jason Heitkamp, a Republican from District 26, accused me, in one of those angry-man-rants-to-Facebook-while-driving livestreams, of having bugged him .
He said I had information about the settlement of a criminal theft charge against him that “nobody else would have.”
“That either means that my house, my car, or my phone is bugged, or somebody in my inner circle is giving information,” he told his social media audience .
The truth is far more prosaic than clandestine listening devices. The theft charge against Heitkamp was a matter of public record, as all criminal proceedings are in North Dakota, and the information I got about a settlement reached in the matter with the alleged victim of the crime came from Heitkamp’s own attorney, who spoke with me by phone and was quoted by name in my article .
Yet Heitkamp has persisted in his claims that I’ve had him bugged, even going so far as to send me a FOIA request by certified mail, which I received at my home yesterday.
