New allegations as child sex-trafficking trial nears for wealthy GOP donor Anton Lazzaro

Nineteen months after his shocking arrest, wealthy Minneapolis GOP donor Anton Lazzaro will stand trial next week on federal child sex trafficking charges that accuse him of systematically recruiting and paying teen girls for sex.

Those expected to testify include a co-defendant who helped track down the "young, tiny girls" Lazzaro sought on social media. Jurors will also hear from five victims who were 15 or 16 in 2020 when Lazzaro allegedly plied them with alcohol and showered them with cash and gifts for sex — at times retrieving them from slumber parties.

The government's indictment of the 32-year-old Lazzaro in August 2021 launched a long legal battle and shook up Minnesota Republican politics: Lazzaro was close to former GOP state party chair Jennifer Carnahan, who stepped down a week after his arrest.

Lazzaro — held in Sherburne County Jail since he was charged — will return to court for a pretrial conference March 20 before Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz in Minneapolis. Jury selection will start a day later, and prosecutors estimate the trial will take 12 days.

Lazzaro's co-defendant, 20-year-old Gisela Castro Medina, pleaded guilty late last year to conspiracy. She will testify about first meeting Lazzaro on a "sugar daddy" website, being paid for sex, and eventually agreeing to help recruit other teenage girls via social media to have sex with Lazzaro for money and gifts.

"Lazzaro told Castro Medina that he was looking for young girls of a certain skin color, petite body type, without tattoos," Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Polachek wrote in the government's trial brief. "Lazzaro told Castro Medina he wanted her to find him vulnerable victims — 'whores,' 'sluts' and 'broken girls.' "

Prosecutors say Lazzaro paid Medina "well over $50,000" to recruit his victims. She used the funds Lazzaro gave her to pay rent and tuition at St. Thomas University, and testified that Lazzaro promised to pay future graduate school expenses and buy her a house.

Medina's December plea agreement also disclosed that $20,000 had been deposited in Medina's bank account, which is being controlled by her attorneys for eventual restitution.

Lazzaro faces a seven-count indictment that includes charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors and obstruction.

In a statement on behalf of Lazzaro, spokesperson Stacy Bettison said Lazzaro has been "wrongfully imprisoned" and denied allegations of child sex trafficking.

"Instead, Mr. Lazzaro believes he is being targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice for his political activities," Bettison's statement read. "Mr. Lazzaro is not alone in his beliefs that the U.S. 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."

Lazzaro has repeatedly argued that he is being unfairly prosecuted for his status as an influential Republican donor. Schiltz refused to dismiss the case last year on such grounds and rejected a letter Lazzaro sent in January after exhausting his legal arguments.

Schiltz also received an anonymous November 2022 letter urging him to reconsider his ruling, and a website in support of Lazzaro has since gone live while claiming to be operated by friends of Lazzaro.

In previewing its case in court filings this month, the government shed new light on how the alleged sex trafficking conspiracy transpired.

Prosecutors say a "similar pattern" unfolded once the girls arrived at Lazzaro's Hotel Ivy condo via Uber: Lazzaro often bragged about his wealth and connections, gave the girls hard liquor while abstaining from drinking himself and pulled out stacks of cash. For kissing, $100; $400 for sex.

The filings say girls were sent home with cash, vape pens, cellphones, designer purses and Plan B contraceptive pills. Lazzaro also allegedly let some of the girls hold guns he owned. Victims are expected to testify about how Lazzaro — who often posed as a man in his early 20s — would be "unfazed" and even grow more interested when he learned that they were underage.

One victim reported Lazzaro to police after he refused to pay her the money that went to Medina in exchange for recruiting her. The girl's father received a non-disclosure agreement from one of Lazzaro's attorneys the next day that offered $1,000 to not disparage Lazzaro and to refer to their encounter as "consensual." She declined to sign it.

For the first time, prosecutors allege that a minor male friend of Medina helped recruit a girl identified as Victim B and her older sister to have sex with Lazzaro for money.

Another girl identified as Victim C, who was 16, was allegedly picked up by an Uber with two of her 14-year-old friends from a sleepover in St. Michael, Minn., in August 2020.

"At one point, Victim C — badly drunk — disappeared into Lazzaro's bedroom," Polachek wrote. "She came out of the bedroom naked from the waist down. She was so drunk that she face-planted in the living room."

The government describes how the mother of another victim, who along with a friend was repeatedly paid for sex by Lazzaro, grew suspicious, which led to the FBI launching a joint investigation with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in late October 2020.

Agents searched Lazzaro's condo in December 2020 and sent him a letter informing him that he was the target of a federal investigation. Later, Lazzaro and Medina allegedly attempted to obstruct the testimony of one of the victims by giving her cash, alcohol and vape pens.

Among the legal motions that still need to be worked out is whether Lazzaro will be able to revive for the jury claims that he is being selectively prosecuted.

Prosecutors are seeking to bar references to Lazzaro's investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar, about which he was scheduled to be interviewed by Tucker Carlson on Fox News the day of his arrest.

They also want Lazzaro prohibited from mentioning the political affiliations and donations of members of the prosecution team, which also includes Assistant U.S. Attorneys Laura Provinzino and Melinda Williams.

Daniel Gerdts, Lazzaro's attorney, is meanwhile asking Schiltz to bar prosecutors from referring to Lazzaro's investments or participation in "any legal adult-themed businesses, including legal adult pornography and websites." He is asking Schiltz to disallow referring to witnesses as victims to the jury. Other motions include asking the judge to forbid prosecutors or witnesses "from making inappropriate comments or arguments based on personal disapproval of otherwise lawful sexual preferences and relationships."