(CNN) - Sen. Lamar Alexander's former chief of staff appeared in court on Thursday after formally being charged with possessing and attempting to distribute child pornography.
Jesse Ryan Loskarn, 35, looked straight ahead and answered "yes" or "no" when questioned by the judge in U.S. District Court. He did not enter a plea.
Loskarn remained in custody with another hearing scheduled for Monday when bail considerations would likely be raised.
He was arrested Wednesday after a raid on his Washington home and quickly replaced by Alexander, who said in a statement that he was "stunned and surprised" by the news.
Alexander said his office was cooperating with investigators.
An affidavit from a U.S. Postal inspector included in the criminal complaint alleged Loskarn made several purchases in 2010 and 2011 from a Canadian company selling sexually explicit DVDs and streaming videos, the majority of which featured underage nude boys.
Federal investigators then said in October, child pornography files were being offered for download on an Internet peer-to-peer network linked to Loskarn's residential IP address.
It included a 28-minute video of graphic material featuring children reportedly as young as 6 years old.
The Maryland native had previously worked for two Republican House members, as well as the House Rules Committee and the Senate Republican Conference.
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