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Lazzaro is charged with allegedly recruiting six minors for commercial sexual acts.
MINNEAPOLIS – Editor’s Note: The above video first aired on August 24, 2021.
For the former GOP donor and strategist Anton “Tony” Lazzaro, a trial date for sex crimes has been set.
Court documents filed on Friday afternoon said 30-year-old Lazzaro will be on trial in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul on October 18, 2021 at 9 a.m. District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright will hear the Lazzaro case.
Last month, a federal judge ruled that Lazzaro would stay at the Sherburne County Jail until his court date, despite his attorney suggesting a number of loan terms, including the surveillance levels he described as the “real Truman show.”
Lazzaro is charged with allegedly recruiting six minors for commercial sexual acts. A criminal complaint shows that the FBI confiscated a variety of goods from his apartment in August, including a Ferrari, cell phones, computers and memory cards, gold and silver bars and foreign currency.
Minnesota Republican Party leader Jennifer Carnahan resigned after Lazzaro’s arrest and subsequent party riots, but denied knowing of Lazzaro’s alleged activities. The two had moderated a podcast together and could often be seen together at social events.
In addition to other positions that Lazzaro held in the Minnesota Republican Party, he used to be an election campaign strategist for GOP candidate Lacy Johnson, who unsuccessfully wanted to oust Democratic MP Ilhan Omar in 2020.
19-year-old Gisela Castro Medina is also charged. She faces seven federal charges, including one sex trafficking charge of minors, five minors sex trafficking charges, and one disability charge.
In a recent court hearing, a witness testified that Castro Medina was allegedly recruiting teenagers who she thought would interest Lazzaro and making encounters with him easier.
Castro Medina was arrested in Florida shortly after Lazzaro’s arrest and taken to a facility in Minnesota to await trial.
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