Anton “Tony” Lazzaro had already been accused of paying underage girls for sex when the up-and-coming Republican political strategist, according to a federal judge, tried to leverage some information he’d dug up.
While jailed without bond, Lazzaro told one of the Minneapolis police officers investigating his case that he knew where the officer lived, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote in an order filed Tuesday. Lazzaro also allegedly told the officer he’d tried to find similar information before his arrest about an FBI agent, but came up empty because the agent was “a ghost” with no online presence.
The federal judge called Lazzaro’s comments to Officer Brandon Brugger an “attempt to threaten and intimidate” and “very troubling.” The judge cited it as one of the reasons he was denying Lazzaro’s request to reconsider giving him a bond. Schiltz ordered that Lazzaro remain locked up pending trial.
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“There is no legitimate reason — none — for Lazzaro to be collecting home addresses and other personal information about the law enforcement officers involved in his case,” Schiltz wrote in his decision.
Lazzaro, 31, was arrested Aug. 12 on sex trafficking charges. Prosecutors are accusing him of orchestrating a sex trafficking scheme in which he paid Gisela Castro Medina, a 19-year-old university student, to scout and recruit at least six underage girls during an eight-month period in 2020, promising them that Lazzaro would be their “sugar daddy.” Once Lazzaro allegedly lured them to his luxury condo in downtown Minneapolis, prosecutors claim he — in exchange for sex acts — provided them with cash, alcohol, vape pens and other items.
Lazzaro and Medina have denied the accusations. One of his lawyers, Catherine Turner, told The Washington Post in an email that her client “strongly disagrees” with the assertion that he threatened investigators.
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“The Government’s own witnesses testified under oath at Mr. Lazzaro’s bond hearing that Mr. Lazzaro did not threaten anyone involved with the investigation. On the day he was arrested, Mr. Lazzaro was berated by unnamed law enforcement agents without his attorneys present and without any recordings of their interrogation. Mr. Lazzaro is being targeted by the Government for unfounded charges. He is innocent and he intends to prove that in trial,” Turner wrote in her email.
Share this articleShareBefore the sex trafficking allegations, Lazzaro was a rising star in Minnesota GOP circles. The self-described entrepreneur had donated to state Republicans and posed in photos with high-powered conservatives like TV host Tucker Carlson, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and former president Donald Trump. He’d made multiple appearances on Fox News programs, and posted photos of himself sitting on top of a private jet, gassing up a Ferrari and posing shirtless with hundred-dollar bills.
Then came his arrest.
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In Tuesday’s ruling, the judge said Lazzaro’s comments to the officer were not his first attempt to obstruct the sex trafficking investigation. The U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis said in court documents that officials discovered Lazzaro had researched information on the prosecutors involved in his case, including where they lived. Lazzaro also allegedly mentioned one of those prosecutors, Laura Provinzino, while speaking with Brugger, the officer who arrested him.
“Laura is going to regret this,” he allegedly told Brugger.
The judge said it was not clear what Lazzaro meant but described the alleged statement about Provinzino as “an apparent threat” and said there was “no legitimate reason for Lazzaro to make such a threatening remark.”
Brugger testified in August that Lazzaro, after learning one of his alleged underage victims intended to go to police, tried to persuade her and her parents to sign a nondisclosure and nondisparagement agreement in exchange for $1,000. The girl’s father refused.
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Brugger also testified that, after law enforcement officers raided Lazzaro’s home, Lazzaro allegedly sent a message to another of his alleged victims “basically saying, ‘I didn’t realize you were 15. I’m sorry … [P]lease don’t say anything.’” Lazzaro is then accused of enlisting Medina and her boyfriend to reach out to that victim at her workplace and buy her silence with “a bottle of alcohol and cash,” court documents state.
Prosecutors allege that Lazzaro and Medina worked together between May and December of last year to recruit underage girls.
To start the process, Medina identified possible girls to target, gave photos of them to Lazzaro and, if he approved, continued to recruit them on Snapchat, prosecutors allege. At some point, Lazzaro would allegedly start communicating with the girls on social media and eventually invite them to his penthouse condo. He often provided their transportation, prosecutors claim, and allegedly told them to tell the desk clerk in his building that they were there to see “Tony in room 1920.”
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