The government is not unfairly prosecuting a prominent Minneapolis GOP donor for child sex trafficking, nor did investigators intentionally listen to jailhouse calls between Anton Lazzaro and his attorneys, a federal magistrate judge concluded Wednesday.

Lazzaro, who has been held in the Sherburne County jail since August 2021, has argued for the dismissal of his indictment based on allegations that investigators illegally listened to calls between him and his attorneys. He also claimed that he was singled out for "selective and vindictive prosecution" because of his political views, wealth and intimate partner choices.

In a 22-page report and recommendation filed Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge David Schultz wrote that Lazzaro's requests should be denied because he did not adequately prove his claims.

"The evidence Lazzaro has provided, even taken as a whole, is insufficient to prove selective or vindictive prosecution," Schultz wrote. "For his selective prosecution claim, Lazzaro has not provided adequate evidence of comparators or improper motive. If a vindictive prosecution claim can apply to these facts at all, Lazzaro's evidence is too thin to prove that claim."

Schultz's report next goes to Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who is overseeing the case and will make a final ruling on Lazzaro's motions. Lazzaro was charged alongside Gisela Castro Medina, a former University of St. Thomas student who last year pleaded not guilty to federal charges that she recruited underage girls for the sex trafficking conspiracy that Lazzaro allegedly helmed.

On Wednesday, Schultz concluded that Lazzaro did not identify cases of the government singling out Lazzaro for prosecution while ignoring other similar cases. The judge wrote that he saw no evidence of similar cases involving people who were not conservative, people who were also outspoken Republicans, or those from different economic classes not being prosecuted for similar conduct.

Lazzaro also tried to argue "improper motive" in the government's case against him, arguing that he was targeted for his wealth and because of his status as an outspoken and active Republican. Part of Lazzaro's arguments to the court included pointing out that he was scheduled to appear on Tucker Carlson's Fox News program to discuss allegations of fraud he was pursuing against U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Schultz wrote Wednesday that there was nothing in the record to suggest that the prosecution or law enforcement knew of Lazzaro's imminent television appearance or what it involved. Lazzaro also failed to persuade the judge that a lead prosecutor in the case — who has donated to Democratic candidates — was vindictively prosecuting Lazzaro over his politics and because she disagreed with his involvement in the adult entertainment industry.

Schultz wrote that "the only motive her political contributions clearly evince is that of electing certain candidates, not hunting Lazzaro. Any perceived link between Lazzaro's speech, the prosecutor's campaign contributions, and the subsequent prosecution is speculation."

Lazzaro's defense team, meanwhile, failed to convince Schultz that the government intruded on his rights by accessing recordings of seven jail phone calls between Lazzaro and his attorneys last year.

Analysts from the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI assigned to listen to Lazzaro's non-attorney jail calls have testified that they did not intentionally listen to such recordings and closed the files upon learning that they were between Lazzaro and his counsel.

Schultz on Wednesday wrote that he found no evidence that the investigators — whom Lazzaro unsuccessfully sought to bar from the case in lieu of having his charges dropped entirely — heard any actual talk of legal strategy between Lazzaro and his attorneys.