A GOP donor with strong connections in the Minnesota Republican Party was sentenced to 21 years in prison Wednesday for sex trafficking underage girls.
Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was found guilty of seven sex charges against five girls aged 15 and 16, the Associated Press reported. He was likened to Jeffrey Epstein by prosecutors.
He was accused of paying underage girls for massages in his homes in Florida and New York and then abusing them. He also had a recruiter find girls for him in Minnesota.
“He’s a sex trafficker,” said prosecutor Laura Provinzino, the AP reported. “One who has shown absolutely no remorse. He has accepted no responsibility for his crimes.”
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“It’s almost as if Mr. Lazzaro set up a sex trafficking assembly line,” said U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who added Lazzaro show sympathy “to himself and Jeffrey Epstein" during the trial, the AP reported.
Lazzaro claimed political motivation for the charges and said he didn’t pay the girls for sex, the AP reported.
His indictment in 2021 led to Jennifer Carnahan, chairwoman for the Minnesota GOP, resigning a week after his indictment.
The two were friends and he’d backed her bid to become party chair 2017, the AP said. He also attended her wedding.
Lazzaro was also involved in the campaign of Republican Lacy Johnson, who unsuccessfully ran against Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar in 2020.
Lazzaro’s co-defendant, Gisela Castrol Medina – who pleaded guilty to charges involving recruitment of girls last year – had been leader of the College Republicans chapter at the University of St. Thomas, the AP reported.
Pictures on his social media accounts showed him with politicians including former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. The AP said he donated more than $270,000 to the party.
