Gov. Tim Walz appears to have spent Easter Sunday with a disgraced Twin Cities attorney who was previously suspended from practicing law after it was determined that he sexually harassed two employees.
In fact, the harassment was so severe in one case that it drove one of the victims to attempt suicide, according to public records and news accounts.
Despite the lawyer’s disturbing past, a social media post obtained by Alpha News appears to show Walz welcomed Clayton Halunen into the taxpayer-funded Governor’s Residence for an Easter gathering.
“When you can’t spend Easter with family, you spend it with these beautiful peeps,” says the post, published by one of the guests in attendance.
A photo accompanying the post shows Halunen and his husband standing alongside Gov. Walz; his wife, Gwen; their son, Gus; and several others.
Just a few months ago, Halunen — who has donated thousands of dollars to Walz’s campaign — was reinstated to the law profession in Minnesota following an indefinite suspension by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Sexual harassment case
Public records describe how Halunen admitted to sexually harassing two men employed by his law firm and then threatened the employees with “civil action, criminal prosecution, and professional consequences” in an effort to silence them.
Halunen contacted the first victim, referred to as D.S., in 2014 via Grindr when Halunen was 50 and D.S. was 19.
A short time later, D.S. was hired as an administrative assistant at Halunen’s law firm and invited to a holiday party at his home, where Halunen grabbed D.S.’s buttocks.
Later that month, D.S. went to dinner and a show with Halunen and his husband before the three of them returned to Halunen’s home. Once there, Halunen asked D.S. to spend the night, sleep in bed with him and his husband, and “fully disrobe.”
“Although uncomfortable and still not interested in [Halunen] romantically, D.S. understood that, to keep his job with the firm, he was not to rebuff his advances,” the director of the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility wrote in a 2022 petition for disciplinary action.
Once Halunen’s husband fell asleep, Halunen proceeded to touch and fondle D.S. while D.S. pretended to be asleep, the petition says.
The petition describes how Halunen invited D.S. to his cabin, a downtown hotel, and on a trip to Colorado, making unwanted sexual contact with D.S. on all three occasions.
According to the petition, D.S. felt powerless to confront Halunen or raise the issue with him or anyone else at the law firm. As the petition explains, D.S. felt “compelled to accede to [Halunen’s] advances and requests as he believed his job security depended upon obeying [Halunen] and complying with his demands.”
The petition lists several examples of Halunen’s unwelcome conduct — both in and outside of the workplace — toward D.S., including kissing and attempting to kiss and touch D.S. in the office elevator, soliciting D.S. for sex via text during the workday, physically touching and groping D.S. in an aggressive manner, and repeatedly making sexual advances.
D.S. eventually resigned from the firm and, after taking time to process his experience, served a demand letter on Halunen. This prompted Halunen to accuse D.S. of perjury and extortion, and threaten him with civil and criminal remedies in the millions of dollars, the petition says.
When they met to discuss the matter, Halunen warned D.S. that he would pursue criminal charges against D.S. if he retained a lawyer. In April 2019, D.S. filed a lawsuit against Halunen and his law firm that outlined the sexual harassment allegations.
A 2022 report from the Star Tribune identified the victim as Dylan Stanek, who said “confronting Halunen led to a mental health crisis that caused him to attempt suicide in 2019,” the outlet reported.
Stanek passed suddenly on Aug. 8, 2025, at the age of 29, according to an obituary in the Pioneer Press.
Second case
In another case, Halunen invited one of his summer externs, T.G., to San Francisco for a mediation. Since the invitation was last minute, T.G. gave Halunen the benefit of the doubt when he learned that they were going to share a hotel room, the petition explains.
After the mediation, they went out for drinks and then returned to the hotel room, where Halunen initiated sexual contact with T.G., but T.G. informed Halunen that the contact was unwelcome. Halunen apologized and promised it wouldn’t happen again.
However, Halunen invited T.G. to his cabin and touched T.G. on his upper thigh in what was perceived to be a sexual manner. Prior to and throughout T.G.’s employment, Halunen repeatedly sent texts and social media messages to T.G. of a “sexual and solicitous nature.”
T.G. told a partner at the law firm about Halunen’s conduct and then eventually resigned. According to the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility petition, Halunen threatened to report T.G. to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for “alleged fraud,” threatened to file an ethics complaint against him, and implied he would “provide a negative employment reference without basis.”
Halunen’s conduct ultimately led to his indefinite suspension from the legal profession in March 2023, with no right to petition for reinstatement for one year.
In ruling to suspend Halunen, the Minnesota Supreme Court described his misconduct as “very serious” and said he “unconditionally admits” to the allegations.
“The facts of the petition establish that Halunen targeted men who were vulnerable due to their age and socioeconomic status, encouraged them to work for his firm, and then sexually harassed them,” the court ruled.
“The sexual harassment was egregious because of the number of incidents—many of which involved intimate, physical sexual contact—and Halunen’s repeated exploitation of the power imbalance between himself and his employees. And Halunen threatened both men in an attempt to keep his misconduct hidden.”
Gov. Walz’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, there is help available 24 hours a day. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at: 988.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
