Image: Anton Lazzaro, YouTube Screenshot

MN GOP Strategist and Fox News Commentator Arrested and Charged with 10 Felony Counts of Underage Sex Trafficking, Conspiracy, and Obstruction of Justice

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Thursday, the FBI Arrested GOP strategist Anton “Tony” Lazzaro in Minneapolis, MN where he currently resides. Lazzaro was indicted on one count of attempted sex trafficking of a minor, five counts of sex trafficking of minors, one count of attempted sex trafficking of a minor, and three counts of obstruction.

Lazzaro served as campaign manager for GOP candidate Lacy Johnson. Johnson ran to unseat Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN). According to the Daily Beast, Johnson was unaware of the raid or the investigation and the two never discussed Lazzaro’s personal dating life. Johnson stated, “I don’t know that side of Tony. He’s young, he’s got money, and… that tends to attract females.”

Lazzaro claimed that his defense attorney, in this case, had subcontracted Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard Law School professor. However, Dershowitz refuted the claim stating, “It’s just not true”.

According to his website, Lazzaro is the founder and Director of Big Tent Republicans PAC. The group is focused on redefining the Republican party, to target minorities, LGBT, and women.

The investigation into Lazzaro has the FBI looking for even more possible victims based on their investigation and are encouraging anyone with information to contact them.

Lazzaro’s website is filled with pictures of himself with many well-known figures of the right and some celebrities.

The indictment included another name that had been redacted and appears that more people may be involved.

Photojournalist Rebecca Brannon shared some of her previous interactions with Lazzaro in a tweet thread which can be seen below. Lazzaro sent Brannon some unsolicited pictures which ended their personal relationship.

Brannon ties Lazzaro to MNGOP chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan. In the thread, Brannon claims that Carnahan was Lazzaro’s biggest fan opening doors for him which lead him to become Lacy Johnson’s campaign manager.

Brannon was investigating Carnahan for a piece that was never released. During her investigation, she tweets, “Former MNGOP employees told me they were ‘freaked out’ & ‘weirded out’ around Anton especially at his condo for a party event – believed/ knew there were hidden cameras in his place.”

Today Brannon tweeted that another arrest will be made relating to “Anton Lazzaro MNGOP corruption fallout”. It appears the MNGOP Chairwoman is being extra careful to neither confirm nor deny that she knew of what was going on.

We will continue to follow the ever-evolving situation that is taking place within the MNGOP.

UPDATE: A second thread has been put out, we will post the entirety of it below for those interested in reading:

THREAD PART II #MNGOPIt’s impossible to share everything I uncovered through my investigative piece that was rejected several months ago by Alpha News. I am breaking this into two threads – this one will uncover just SOME details of alleged harassment and sexual assault within the MNGOP and the other thread will detail alleged money fraud.

I’ll do my best to drop some of the major pieces when it comes to the deep corruption surrounding leadership by Chairwoman Carnahan – much of which she enabled for years and was able to keep undercover by weaponizing party resources and close aides like Anton Lazzaro to intimidate or silence victims and many others. For some, these details will shed light on why under Carnahan the MNGOP has had so many sudden resignations and firings.

Carnahan actively recruited her right-hand man and close friend Anton Lazzaro to intimidate concerned activists. A lot of this intimidation can still be seen in numerous public online Facebook threads, but many sources have shared with me how Lazzaro would go as far as to intimidate others in person or via phone.

There’s simply no one closer to Carnahan than Anton Lazzaro. This is a fact. Activists knew of his porn activities & were concerned w/ how close she was w/ him. With Anton now gone others feel that they can start opening up.

For years Lazzaro was empowered and emboldened due to the fact that his close friend Carnahan was chair. This isn’t an attempt to claim ‘guilt by association’ – activists and insiders knew firsthand of their closeness. As stated in my previous thread – he was only a foreground donor up until the time he completely funded Carnahan to get elected, which then allowed him to have enormous influence with a Congressman, the MNGOP, and conservative politics as a whole.

It was well known among party insiders that the two travelled together, even nicknaming Lazzaro as “her sugar daddy.” Helping Carnahan get elected opened the doors to network among top political elite. Again, this was allowed to continue despite delegates and activists knowing that Lazzaro was on record numerous times not supporting what most GOP voters believe, often attacking the most socially conservative within the party, and even, ironically, those opposing pornography.

A former MNGOP employee explained to me how they were a victim of sexual harassment and employee workplace discrimination at the MNGOP. This employee’s sexual orientation had been allegedly discovered by Carnahan – who then shared this private information with other hardcore party activists and Lazzaro, who in turn harassed this person, resulting in running them out of the MNGOP. I cannot begin to describe the profound depression this young professional had to endure.

Lazzaro and other aides had reached out to the individual to threaten them in an attempt to force them to sign a NDA, at Carnahan’s behest. Lazzaro actively discredited the individual as ‘crazy’ on social media to other activists when the employee tried to blow the whistle about their firsthand knowledge of alleged money fraud. Numerous former MNGOP employees confirm to me that NDAs are relentlessly forced on them by Carnahan and by her strong arm personal confidants like Lazzaro, Billy Grant, and Spencer Krier.

I discovered that intimidation, harassment, and sexual assault are a hallmark of inner MNGOP operations. Even though I had stepped away from the inner circle of activism a few years to avoid further harassment from Carnahan myself, I was astounded at the level of corrupt and unethical behavior Carnahan and those closest to her engaged in on a routine basis.

Top aides Billy Grant and Spencer Krier, closely associated with Lazzaro, have a well deserved reputation among former employees and activists as Carnahan’s henchmen. In one accounting, a former employee described how Grant called another young former employee, threatening, “I’ll break your legs” if the young individual did not delete a Twitter page with anti Carnahan messages that he believed the individual was operating.

Most disturbingly, numerous sources corroborated an alleged sexual assault of an underage girl in Georgia by Spencer Krier. During the Georgia recount earlier this year, of group of MNGOP members along with Krier were sent to Georgia to assist in ground efforts and it is here where the alleged rape or assault took place.

The details were so upsetting that in my attempt to seek clarification from the one source who claimed to have witnessed it or had firsthand knowledge, backed out at the last minute and refused to share anything further with me. This YR official and Eden Prairie activist also feared retaliation from party aides and Carnahan.

Sources tell me that Carnahan had only been in GA for an initial photo op but was immediately notified of the incident and had to fly back out the following day to ‘clean up the mess.’ Despite these alleged details and numerous activists knowing, Krier was kept on as an MNGOP employee. This, in part, is why some top officials recently released letters regarding Carnahan without giving out too much detail of what they knew.

Krier is also known among insiders and top MNGOP officials to have also allegedly sexually harassed other women. Sources told me during my investigation of at least two incidents involving young women but who would not speak out due to fear of retaliation from party insiders and Carnahan herself. I am not revealing their identities because it is their story to tell, if and when they choose to tell it.

Unfortunately, I understood their fears and concern for privacy more than most. In October of last year, someone I considered a close friend in the MNGOP political circles sexually assaulted me and attempted to rape me. This is a major donor to the party and a high-profile activist. For months I didn’t go to the police because I was scared. I went from blaming myself to being angry that it happened to me. Learning what others had experienced similarly within the MNGOP helped prompt me to file a police report.

Investigating and uncovering these details kept me up many nights. A lot of us felt helpless knowing that, without the sources coming forward, few would listen or believe. Who would listen when party delegates actively and always dismissed any criticism of or concerns about Carnahan, who had generated an unhealthy fear in, and intimidation of, us for years? MNGOP activists have been groomed to ‘go along to get along’ or simply walk away.

So here we are today with the fallout triggered by Anton Lazzaro’s arrest on a bevy of federal child sex trafficking charges.

Since my first thread was published yesterday, I’ve been overwhelmed with messages of thanks from other silenced victims and former activists. The reach of Carnahan’s damage and intimidation never ceases to amaze me given that I felt so alone years ago, likely one of her first victims when I naively thought ‘politics could be fun.

’I expected the usual pushback from hardcore party delegates and Carnahan supporters who claim any that criticism or questioning ‘hurts the party’, but I believe that silence is complicity, and with the open secrets of Anton Lazzaro finally surfacing, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

During my investigation I reached out to Carnahan for comment on some of the very specific allegations I have mentioned in this thread. At the time, she and her representative Billy Grant pleaded with me not to publish the article.

Kay Williamson
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