Salon - The Rot Ran Deep In The Minnesota GOP: "Toxic Work Environment" Doesn't Even Come Close

[hatrack]

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In conversations with seven current and former staffers of the Minnesota Republican Party, most of them women who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, all shared similar experiences of racism and sexual harassment or assault by high-level employees of the state organization. Likewise, all outlined a pattern of reprisal from Carnahan targeting anyone who spoke out about these and other issues within the organization, subjecting employees and even some activists affiliated with the party to repeated verbal abuse. Strict non-disclosure agreements were also a requirement for anyone who wanted to work closely with Carnahan, a fact she used as a cudgel to silence dissent, several of the employees said.

Two former staffers even described sustained harassment campaigns directed against them and others that included male staffers showing up at their homes at odd hours — an apparent intimidation tactic — and drastic measures like withholding paychecks for anyone who complained about Carnahan or her top lieutenants' behavior. "I remember this so vividly — I had to drive across town with my supervisor to fill up another staffer's tank because she hadn't been paid in months after some kind of dispute with Jennifer," Khang said. "She was completely broke."

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Anton Lazzaro, one of the state party's top donors and a close personal friend of Carnahan's, was indicted for child sex trafficking — alongside a rising College Republican star, Gisela Castro Medina, who chaired the University of St. Thomas College Republicans. Federal prosecutors allege the pair recruited and abused at least five minor victims in a scheme Carnahan maintains she knew nothing about. All the former Minnesota GOP employees who spoke with Salon expressed incredulity at Carnahan's claims of ignorance. "It's not that she missed the signs," one former Minnesota GOP staff member said. "It's that she totally ignored them, even after people brought their concerns to her attention."

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One incident that continues to create waves within the party and was mentioned repeatedly in interviews concerned an anonymous Twitter account that began posting in late 2019, claiming to be a high-level party insider with knowledge of Lazzaro's nefarious activities. Salon was unable to find the Twitter account, and everyone who spoke about the incident said it was deleted shortly after it was created. Still, at least four people close to the party described the page tweeting out a variety of accusations, including that Lazzaro was filming porn in a luxury condo he owned at a swanky downtown building called The Ivy in Minneapolis. All four of those people also recalled the firestorm that was created when Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan found out about the account — within hours a full scale internal investigation was launched into the source of the rumors, quickly becoming "priority No. 1" for the Minnesota GOP office, as one former staffer put it.

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https://www.salon.com/2021/08/27/how-the-minnesota-gop-imploded-from-a-toxic-workplace-to-a-full-on-sex-trafficking-scandal/

[Lovie777]

1. Apparently the GOP have problems concerning child porn . ...

and it's not just in Minnesota.

[Irish_Dem]

2. It is becoming more apparent yes. More than porn, commercial trafficking of minors as well.