MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A formerly well-connected Republican donor, accused of plying petite, vulnerable teenage girls with money, liquor and gifts, goes on trial Tuesday on federal charges of sex trafficking minors.
Anton “Tony” Lazzaro is charged with seven counts involving “industrial sex acts” with five minors ages 15 and 16 in 2020, when he was 30 years old.
His indictment touched off a political firestorm that led to the downfall of Jennifer Carnahan as chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
His co-defendant, Gisela Castro Medina, who formerly led the College Republicans chapter on the University of St. Thomas, pleaded guilty to 2 counts last yr.
She is cooperating with prosecutors and can testify against him. She faces sentencing in August.
Lazzaro denies the sex-trafficking allegations.
He says the federal government targeted him for political reasons and since of his wealth.
Prosecutors say it’s simply a sex-trafficking case.
They’ve not signaled any intent to call political figures as witnesses, nor has the defense.
US District Judge Patrick Schiltz has already rejected Lazzaro’s claims of selective prosecution.
But Lazzaro insists he’s innocent and that the costs are politically motivated.
“Mr. Lazzaro believes he’s being targeted by the US Department of Justice for his political activities,” spokeswoman Stacy Bettison said in a press release to The Associated Press.
“The weird application of the federal sex trafficking statute to the facts in Mr. Lazzaro’s case supports his beliefs. He is just not alone in his view that the US Department of Justice is politicizing prosecutions. Many other individuals, including many members of Congress and most recently the Senate Judiciary Committee, have recently raised legitimate and credible concerns that Attorney General (Merrick) Garland is politicizing the department by aggressively investigating Republicans and conservative activists, like Mr. Lazzaro.”
Carnahan is the widow of US Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died of kidney cancer in February 2022.
She denied knowing of any wrongdoing by Lazzaro before the costs were unsealed in August 2021, and he or she condemned his alleged crimes.
But his arrest fueled outrage amongst party activists. Allegations surfaced that she created a toxic work environment and abused nondisclosure agreements to silence her critics.
She resigned per week later.
Carnahan and Lazzaro became friends when she ran unsuccessfully for a legislative seat in 2016.
He backed her bid to develop into party chair in 2017 and attended her 2018 wedding to Hagedorn.
They hosted a podcast together for a number of months.
Lazzaro also helped run the campaign of Republican Lacy Johnson, who didn’t unseat Democratic US Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, in 2020.
Pictures on Lazzaro’s social media accounts showed him with outstanding Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
He founded a political motion committee called Big Tent Republicans, which advocated for a more inclusive party.
Lazzaro gave greater than $270,000 to Republican campaigns and political committees through the years, including $42,000 to the state party organization and $31,000 to Hagedorn’s campaign.
Several recipients quickly donated those contributions to charity after the costs became public, including US Rep. Tom Emmer, of Minnesota, who received $15,600 but suffered no repercussions.
Emmer became majority whip in January.
Prosecutors alleged of their trial temporary earlier this month that Lazzaro conspired with Castro Medina and others to recruit 15- and 16-year-old girls to have sex with him in exchange for money and useful items.
They met in May 2020 on a “sugar daddy” website when she was 18 years old and ending highschool, prosecutors wrote.
In accordance with the temporary, Lazzaro had “a stated sexual preference for young, tiny girls” and liked them “broken” and vulnerable — but without tattoos.
Prosecutors say he paid Castro Medina “well over $50,000,” including money for her tuition, her off-campus apartment and her Mini Cooper.
He often sent cars to take the ladies to his luxury penthouse condo on the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, prosecutors said.
“Once the ladies Castro Medina recruited arrived at Lazzaro’s apartment, the same pattern ensued,” the temporary alleges. “Lazzaro would brag about his wealth and connections. He would give the ladies — small and young — hard liquor. Lazzaro would take out stacks of money and offer the ladies precise sums of cash to perform certain sex acts with him, and with one another. $100 to kiss. $400 for sex. And so forth. He would send them home with money, vapes, alcohol, Plan B, cell phones, and other items of value.”
Plan B is a type of emergency contraception.
Lazzaro can also be the goal of a lawsuit by one alleged victim who claims he offered $1,000 in hush money to her and her parents and asked them to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
The costs against Lazzaro, who has been jailed since his arrest and has been denied bail, carry mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years with a maximum potential of life in prison.