GOP donor faces trial on costs of intercourse trafficking minors

MINNEAPOLIS — A previously well-connected Republican donor, accused of plying petite, susceptible teenage ladies with money, liquor and presents, goes on trial Tuesday on federal costs of intercourse trafficking minors.

Anton “Tony” Lazzaro is charged with seven counts involving “business intercourse acts” with 5 minors ages 15 and 16 in 2020, when he was 30 years previous. His indictment touched off a political firestorm that led to the downfall of Jennifer Carnahan as chair of the Republican Celebration of Minnesota.

His co-defendant, Gisela Castro Medina, who previously led the School Republicans chapter on the College of St. Thomas, pleaded responsible to 2 counts final 12 months. She is cooperating with prosecutors and can testify in opposition to him. She faces sentencing in August.

Lazzaro denies the sex-trafficking allegations. He says the federal government focused him for political causes and due to his wealth.

Prosecutors say it is merely a sex-trafficking case. They haven’t signaled any intent to name political figures as witnesses, nor has the protection. U.S. District Decide Patrick Schiltz has already rejected Lazzaro’s claims of selective prosecution.

However Lazzaro insists he is harmless and that the costs are politically motivated.

“Mr. Lazzaro believes he’s being focused by the U.S. Division of Justice for his political actions,” spokeswoman Stacy Bettison mentioned in a press release to The Related Press. “The weird software of the federal intercourse trafficking statute to the information in Mr. Lazzaro’s case helps his beliefs. He’s not alone in his view that the U.S. Division of Justice is politicizing prosecutions. Many different people, together with many members of Congress and most not too long ago the Senate Judiciary Committee, have not too long ago raised professional and credible considerations that Lawyer Normal (Merrick) Garland is politicizing the division by aggressively investigating Republicans and conservative activists, like Mr. Lazzaro.”

Carnahan is the widow of U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died of kidney most cancers in February 2022. She denied figuring out of any wrongdoing by Lazzaro earlier than the costs had been unsealed in August 2021, and he or she condemned his alleged crimes. However his arrest fueled outrage amongst celebration activists. Allegations surfaced that she created a poisonous work atmosphere and abused nondisclosure agreements to silence her critics. She resigned per week later.

Carnahan and Lazzaro turned buddies when she ran unsuccessfully for a legislative seat in 2016. He backed her bid to turn out to be celebration chair in 2017 and attended her 2018 wedding ceremony to Hagedorn. They hosted a podcast collectively for a number of months.

Lazzaro additionally helped run the marketing campaign of Republican Lacy Johnson, who didn’t unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, in 2020. Photos on Lazzaro’s social media accounts confirmed him with outstanding Republicans, together with former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. He based a political motion committee referred to as Massive Tent Republicans, which advocated for a extra inclusive celebration.

Lazzaro gave greater than $270,000 to Republican campaigns and political committees through the years, together with $42,000 to the state celebration group and $31,000 to Hagedorn’s marketing campaign. A number of recipients rapidly donated these contributions to charity after the costs turned public, together with U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, of Minnesota, who acquired $15,600 however suffered no repercussions. Emmer turned 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 ladies to have intercourse with him in trade for money and beneficial objects. They met in Could 2020 on a “sugar daddy” web site when she was 18 years previous and ending highschool, prosecutors wrote.

In line with the temporary, Lazzaro had “a said sexual choice for younger, tiny ladies” and preferred them “damaged” and susceptible — however with out tattoos. Prosecutors say he paid Castro Medina “effectively over $50,000,” together with cash for her tuition, her off-campus condo and her Mini Cooper.

He typically despatched vehicles to take the ladies to his luxurious penthouse condominium on the Lodge Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, prosecutors mentioned.

“As soon as the ladies Castro Medina recruited arrived at Lazzaro’s condo, an identical sample ensued,” the temporary alleges. “Lazzaro would brag about his wealth and connections. He would give the ladies — small and younger — exhausting liquor. Lazzaro would take out stacks of money and supply the ladies exact sums of cash to carry out sure intercourse acts with him, and with one another. $100 to kiss. $400 for intercourse. And so forth. He would ship them house with money, vapes, alcohol, Plan B, cell telephones, and different objects of worth.” Plan B is a type of emergency contraception.

Lazzaro can also be the goal of a lawsuit by one alleged sufferer who claims he supplied $1,000 in hush cash to her and her mother and father and requested them to signal a nondisclosure settlement.

The costs in opposition to Lazzaro, who has been jailed since his arrest and has been denied bail, carry necessary minimal sentences of 10 years with a most potential of life in jail.

The sources of Lazzaro’s wealth are murky. Protection filings have referred to as him “an up-and-coming actual property proprietor and entrepreneur.” Objects seized from him included a 2010 Ferrari and greater than $371,000 in money. The federal government put his web price in a bond report at greater than $2 million however mentioned its calculations did not embody his “intensive” however hard-to-trace cryptocurrency holdings. It famous that the search yielded a number of kinds of overseas forex, plus valuable metals price greater than $500,000.