The chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, Jennifer Carnahan, is maintaining that she did nothing wrong, she didn't know about any of the allegations stemming from Tony Lazzaro's arrest, and that any demands for her to step aside are “guilt by association”.
Minnesota GOP strategist and donor Anton "Tony" Lazzaro was arrested Thursday and faces charges of recruiting and sex trafficking of minors.
Lazzaro has since been connected to Carnahan and there are growing calls for her to step down from Republican Legislators and party leaders across the state. While there are no direct connections between Lazzaro's alleged activity and the GOP Party so far, there are enough questions about their relationship that many in the party are asking for her to step aside.
It's not the only controversy Carnahan finds herself in the middle of after allegations have surfaced of sexual harassment involving two GOP staff members last November.
WCCO political analyst Blois Olson said on The Morning News Monday that the Republican Party is performing a full financial audit and there are many different "tentacles to this story".
“There was series of former employees that had non-disclosure agreements, and now they’ve lifted those from the former employees about the culture of the Republican Party,” Olson shares. “Jennifer Carnahan was just re-elected as Party Chair in a pretty brutal fight, but she was re-elected pretty solidly. Her supporters, many of whom texted me last night, said they’re just trying to rehash the party chair fight. Meanwhile, you have legislators that have to run with the Republican Party label saying, no she should resign. That number keeps growing and growing.”
Talking to WCCO's Cory Hepola on Monday, Olson adds that law enforcement has been working on this case for quite a while.
"My sources told me inside law enforcement that they're really focused on finding the victims. They raided his condo or apartment way back in December. If you think about what they've known and how they've been tracking him since December for these charges to come through, I think there's some significant time there."
In a press release sent out Sunday night, they say that alleged incidents occurred in November of last year and they weren’t brought to her attention until April of this year while she was running for re-election.
“No complaint was ever filed or brought forth to the Chairwoman or Republican Party of Minnesota by any staffers in Georgia, including supervisory RNC staff that managed this situation directly at the time.”
The release also adds, “This is just the latest in unfounded accusations against the Chairwoman in recent days for those in the party that hoped to unseat her in her re-election on April 10th.”
The 30-year old Lazzaro was scheduled to make his first Federal court appearance Monday but that has been postponed until later this week.
Meanwhile, the former chair of the St. Thomas College Republicans, 19-year old Gisela Castro Medina, is also facing similar charges after being arrested in Florida on Thursday.
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On the Minnesota GOP Twitter account, Carnahan said this weekend, “"The arrest and charges involving Ms. Gisela Castro Medina, in conjunction with Thursday's arrest and sex trafficking charges of Mr. Anton Lazzaro are heinous and disturbing. While we work for the same cause, the Minnesota GOP has no jurisdiction over the Minnesota College Republicans, including the chapter at the University of St. Thomas."
Lazzaro's arrest highlighted his close ties to several Minnesota GOP figures including Carnahan. Carnahan hosted a podcast with Lazzaro. In a statement after Lazzaro's arrest, Carnahan said any donation made by Lazzaro to the state party will be given to charity.