MINNEAPOLIS – The wealthy playboy Tony Lazzaro whose largesse included leading Minnesota Republicans has been ordered prison for 21 years for teen-age sex trafficking. The sentence was handed down by federal Judge Patrick Schiltz. Although prosecutors asked for 30 years and Lazzaro’s attorneys for 10, Judge Schiltz chose a middle term. He did, however, have harsh words for Lazzaro. The judge said he was struck by the “soulless, almost mechanical nature” of Lazzaro and the teen-age girls: “It’s almost as if Mr. Lazzaro set up a sex trafficking assembly line.” A jury found Lazzaro guilty five months earlier on seven counts of “commercial sex acts” with five girls ages 15 and 16. He was 30 at the time. The assaults were in his Minneapolis penthouse.
Political connections
Lazzaro’s arrest in 2020 sent the Minnesota GOP into disarray. Not only was Lazzaro’s procurer the head the student Republican club at the University of St. Thomas but he hobnobbed with GOP bigwigs and donated to their campaigns. Among donation recipients:
> Congressman Tom Emmer, a Republican, of St. Cloud and northern Twin Cities suburbs.
> Congressman Jim Hagedorn, a Republican, of southern Minnesota.
> Lacy Johnson, a Republican, who tried unsuccessfully in 2020 to unseat Ilhan Omar, who represented a Minneapolis district in Congress.
Lazzaro also was close with state OP chair Jennifer Carnahan, who was Hagedorn’s wife. As the sex-trafficking scandal was unfolding, Carnahan was thrown out of party leadership. With Carnahan and Hagedorn, Lazzaro had met with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Minnesota campaign visits. In all, Lazzaro gave $270,000 to Republican candidates and political campaigns.
The Epstein connection
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Schiltz said he was troubled that the Lazzaro showed no sympathy for the girls he procured, all 15 and 16 years old and all whom his procurer said were “white, small, vulnerable or broken.” The only sympathy Lazzaro expressed was for himself and Jeffrey Epstein, the judge said. Lazzaro’s affinity for Epstein was unclear except that he saw them both as targets for their political involvement. Epstein was a frequent guest of Trump at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, as well a mover in celebrity circles. Federal investigators identified 36 girls, some as young as 16, on whom Epstein lavished gifts and consorted. Epstein died in jail in 2019 at age 66. Epstein’s procurer of girls, Ghislane Maxwell, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for schemes to entice minors to travel and engage in sex with Epstein.
Earlier: Jury: Big-time GOP donor Lazzaro guilty in sex case
Earlier: Lazzaro friends go to bat for him online
Lazzaro. At 2020 Minnesota campaign event wuth Vice President Mike Pence.
Podcast. Promoting the show before it all crashed down.
TV appeal. For all good citizens to come into the GOP “big tent.”