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A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 10 augusT 2023

GOP donor Anton Lazzaro sentenced to 21 years for sex trafficking

minors in Minnesota

By Trisha Ahmed words for Lazzaro. your actions. … I hope you
Associated Press He said Lazzaro showed rot in hell.”
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A for- sympathy to only two peo- The Associated Press does
merly well-connected GOP ple during the trial “to him- not typically name victims
donor convicted of giving self and Jeffrey Epstein.” of sex crimes.
teenage girls gifts, alcohol And the judge said he was Lazzaro, who has said the
and money in exchange struck by the “soulless, al- charges against him were
for sex was sentenced most mechanical nature” politically motivated, main-
Wednesday to 21 years of how Lazzaro exploited tained his innocence, de-
in prison on sex trafficking the girls. nying that he paid any of
charges. “It’s almost as if Mr. Lazzaro the girls explicitly for sex.
Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was set up a sex trafficking as- “I take a lot of offense
found guilty in March by a sembly line,” Schiltz said. to the government and
federal jury of seven counts One of the victims called court’s notion that I per-
involving “commercial sex Lazzaro a child predator in jured myself in this trial. ...
acts” with five girls ages 15 court Wednesday and said Grooming behavior is the
and 16 in 2020, when Laz- she continues to be im- word you used,” he said.
zaro was 30. The charges pacted by his actions. “If that’s the case, then I
carried mandatory mini- “I still see him in my night- suppose anyone who gives
mum sentences of 10 years mares, in my panic attacks, someone a gift, whether it
with a maximum of life in in men in their thirties. … be a cheap gift or a million
prison. Putting Tony behind bars dollars, is grooming their
Prosecutors had requested will save so many girls,” she companion for sex. OK?
a 30-year sentence for Laz- said. If that’s the standard that
zaro. They likened Lazzaro The mother of a different we’re going to apply, then
to financier Jeffrey Epstein, victim addressed Lazzaro I don’t know how there’s
who was arrested in 2019 directly. any standard to apply.”
on federal charges accus- “The damage you caused Defense attorney Daniel
ing him of paying under- my daughter, mentally and Gerdts said afterward that
age girls for massages and emotionally, you didn’t just they were “looking forward
then abusing them at his cause that damage to her. to the appeal.”
homes in Florida and New This booking photo released by Sherburne County Jail shows You caused it to me and Lazzaro’s indictment in
York. The defense asked for Anton Lazzaro. my family and all these vic- 2021 touched off a politi-
no more than 10 years. (Sherburne County Jail/Star Tribune via AP, File) tims and all of their fami- cal firestorm that led to the
“He’s a sex trafficker,” absolutely no remorse. He U.S. District Judge Patrick lies,” she said. “You stand downfall of Jennifer Carna-
prosecutor Laura Provinzino has accepted no responsi- Schiltz came down in the up here and you don’t han as chair of the Repub-
said. “One who has shown bility for his crimes.” middle and had harsh even care. You’re justifying lican Party of Minnesota.q

NYC mayor wants more aid from the Biden administration to offset

$12B in costs for housing migrants

By Bobby Caina Calvan the Biden administration to But our city’s residents have The U.S. Department of With the city’s shelters near
Associated Press help relieve his city from the been left to deal with this Homeland Security re- capacity and more mi-
NEW YORK (AP) — With growing financial burden. crisis almost entirely on our cently dispatched a small grants arriving, the crisis is
thousands of migrants still “New Yorkers did not cre- own,” the mayor said in an team to New York City to unlikely to abate anytime
arriving in New York City, ate an international hu- address Wednesday morn- help determine how the soon.
Mayor Eric Adams on manitarian crisis. ing. federal government should As of Sunday, the city said
Wednesday renewed his respond. it was housing more than
appeal to the federal gov- The federal government 82,000 people, including
ernment to help the city has so far promised the nearly 30,000 children.
avert a budgetary crisis as city $160 million to help al- The Legal Aid Society and
expenses mount now pro- though the city’s budget the Coalition for the Home-
jected at $12.2 billion by the director, Jacques Jiha, told less, among the mayor’s
end of next year because reporters that the city has most vociferous critics,
of the influx of people com- yet to receive a “single dol- echoed the mayor’s plea
ing from the southern U.S. lar” of that money. A city for help. “This is a mo-
border seeking temporary spokesperson later clari- ment that requires the full
care and shelter. fied that requests for that resources and authority of
“Our compassion may be money have been made government from all lev-
limitless, but our resources but the delay could be be- els, and the city should not
are not. This is the budget- cause of routine bureau- have to shoulder the re-
ary reality we are facing if cratic reasons. sponse without meaningful
we don’t get the additional Since the spring of 2022, assistance from both the
support we need,” Adams New York Mayor Eric Adams, left, and city officials listen to nearly 100,000 migrants Biden and Hochul adminis-
said during an address that a reporter’s question during a City Hall press conference, have arrived in New York trations,” the groups said in
Wednesday Aug. 9, 2023, in New York.
sought to put the onus on (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) City seeking shelter. a statement.q