Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn, a Republican, was arrested this week on felony charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution, police said, after he allegedly tried to meet up with an officer who posed as a 17-year-old girl.
Eichorn, 40, of Grand Rapids, traveled to Bloomington for the meeting and was arrested without incident, according to police. “As a 40-year-old man, if you come to the Orange Jumpsuit District looking to have sex with someone’s child, you can expect that we are going to lock you up,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said in a news release.
Charges against Eichorn are pending with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, according to Bloomington police. Eichorn’s Senate office did not immediately respond to MSNBC’s request for comment on the pending charges against him.
A number of state lawmakers, including his fellow Republicans, are now calling on Eichorn to resign. “We are shocked by these reports and this alleged conduct demands an immediate resignation,” Minnesota Senate Republicans said in a statement. “Justin has a difficult road ahead and he needs to focus on his family.”
Eichorn, whose Senate biography notes that he is married with four children, had made headlines Monday, just hours before his arrest, for a provocative bill he co-sponsored with three fellow Republican senators. The legislation would classify “Trump derangement syndrome” as a mental illness in the state statute, ostensibly meant as a dig at President Donald Trump’s critics.
The bill states:
‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ means the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump. Symptoms may include Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump’s behavior.
“Trump derangement syndrome” is a term popular among the president’s supporters to deride critics as being irrationally fixated on him. (A version of the phrase has been used to pejoratively describe critics of past presidents as well, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush.) Trump’s billionaire megadonor, Elon Musk, also recently used the term to criticize progressives who he said had turned on him after he spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump.
The bill was roundly ridiculed by Minnesota Democrats. State Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy called it “possibly the worst bill in Minnesota history.”
“If it is meant as a joke, it is a waste of staff time and taxpayer resources that trivializes serious mental health issues. If the authors are serious, it is an affront to free speech and an expression of a dangerous level of loyalty to an authoritarian president,” Murphy said.
Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, a Republican, suggested the bill was not meant to be taken seriously, calling it “a little bit tongue in cheek” and “an outlet for some frustration.” Even as he downplayed an actual bill introduced by members of his own party, Johnson accused his Democratic colleagues of talking about Trump more than addressing local issues, adding, “Let’s get focused on what’s important: prioritizing Minnesotans.”
