Minnesota Lawmaker Tried to Meet With Underage Prostitute, Police Say

A Republican state senator in Minnesota was arrested this week and accused of arranging to meet with an underage prostitute, the police said, making him the second lawmaker in the closely divided State Senate to now be facing felony charges.

The Republican senator, Justin Eichorn, 40, had actually been talking to a detective from the Bloomington Police Department in Bloomington, Minn., who was posing as a 16-year-old when he arranged the meet-up on Monday, the police said.

The authorities are recommending that he be charged with soliciting a prostitute under the age of 18, a felony that is punishable with up to five years in prison.

Mr. Eichorn’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Senate Republican Caucus called on Mr. Eichorn to step down on Tuesday. “We are shocked by these reports and this alleged conduct demands an immediate resignation,” the caucus said in a statement. “Justin has a difficult road ahead and he needs to focus on his family.”

Mr. Eichorn, who was elected to the State Senate in 2016, represents a largely rural district in northern Minnesota. He is married and has four children, according to his campaign website.

His name has been in the news in recent days because he is one of the sponsors of a state bill that would recognize “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a form of mental illness.

The bill describes the syndrome as an “acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump.” The bill has been broadly seen as an exercise in political theater and is highly unlikely to advance in the Senate, where Democrats have a one-seat majority.

Mr. Eichorn is now the second Minnesota senator currently in office who is facing felony charges: Nicole Mitchell, a Democrat, is preparing to go to trial on burglary charges in the coming months.

Ms. Mitchell, who has pleaded not guilty, was arrested last April after the police said she broke into her stepmother’s home. The senator told investigators that she was trying to retrieve items of “sentimental value” that had belonged to her father, according to the police.

Republicans have called on Ms. Mitchell to resign since her arrest, but she has refused, arguing that she deserves her day in court and wishes to continue representing her constituents. Her fellow Democrats, eyeing their razor-thin majority, have largely accepted that decision.

Minnesota Republicans showed less leniency toward Mr. Eichorn on Tuesday. “Resign in disgrace,” Representative Elliott Engen, a House Republican, wrote on X in response to news of the arrest. “Prosecute to the fullest. Throw away the key.”

According to the Bloomington Police Department, Mr. Eichorn arrived in a pickup truck in a commercial district in Bloomington, a suburb of Minneapolis, on Monday after discussing a sexual encounter with the undercover detective. The police said the lawmaker “was arrested without incident” and transported to the local jail.

Bloomington has promoted itself as an “Orange Jumpsuit District,” intended to convey that it has zero tolerance for conduct that unfolds in sex work enclaves known as red-light districts.

“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,” the Bloomington police chief, Booker Hodges, said in a statement on Tuesday.

After a person is arrested in Minnesota, the police present evidence to the local county attorney’s office, which decides whether to formally issue charges. A public charging document had not been filed in the court system as of Tuesday afternoon.