Minnesota’s chief federal judge lambasted ex-Minnesota GOP operative Anton “Tony” Lazzaro Thursday over an alleged scheme “to deceive and bribe a former juror” who served on his 2023 sex trafficking trial.
Lazzaro, or someone on his behalf, allegedly sent the juror a fake survey eliciting sensitive information in an attempt to build his case for a new trial.
In a sharply worded order filed Thursday, U.S. District Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz said he’s “extremely troubled” that the convicted sex trafficker, or someone on his behalf, sent a juror an electronic survey in August under the guise of a legitimate research questionnaire that offered a $100 gift card for completion.
The survey, titled “Gopher Women’s Institute 2025 Study − Paid Survey For Women Age 45+ in Minnesota,” promised anonymity and included questions such as whether the juror or their close friends or family had ever been sexually abused, according to Schiltz’s order. When the juror did not respond to the survey at first, she was sent repeated text messages and offered another $50 gift card.
“Such harassment and deception of a former juror would be outrageous,” Schiltz wrote in his order, filed Thursday. He prohibited Lazzaro and anyone on his behalf from contacting the juror in the case without permission from the court.
Lazzaro is serving a 21-year prison sentence after the jury found him guilty of federal trafficking charges that he paid teen girls to have sex with him. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the conviction earlier this year. Lazzaro asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his conviction, a request that the country’s highest court denied last month.
Lazzaro’s latest attempt for a new trial hinges on misconduct allegations against the juror, whom he alleges failed to “disclose her bias in favoring the testimony of females over men, and her belief that supporters of Trump (like Mr. Lazzaro) were all ‘sexual predators’ and felons.” The survey was meant to supplement Lazzaro’s request for a new trial, according to court filings.
In his argument, Lazzaro’s defense attorney pointed to how the juror responded “yes” to the fake survey’s inquiry about whether she or close friends or family, had been sexually abused. In contrast, the juror answered “no” to a juror questionnaire tied to Lazzaro’s trial that posed a similar question: “Have you or has anyone close to you ever been a victim of sexual abuse or other sexual misconduct of any kind?”
