Officials from the Trump administration have pressured Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan as they face criminal charges in the country.
The pair, who are joint US and UK nationals, were arrested in 2022 on charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, money laundering and forming an organised crime group. They have denied any wrongdoing.
US officials raised their case with Bucharest in a phone call last week before following up with a meeting between Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell and the Romanian foreign minister, sources reportedly told the Financial Times.
Another insider told the newspaper that a request had been made to return the brothers’ passports and allow them to travel while they await the conclusion of their court proceedings.
The brothers’ movements have been restricted since their 2022 arrest – spending three months in police detention, before being put under house arrest and then being prevented from leaving the country.
The two men also face charges including accusations of rape and human trafficking in the UK, and a court in Bucharest has ruled that they can be extradited to Britain once a final decision is reached in their case in Romania.
The brothers said in a written statement that they ‘remain fully dedicated to working alongside their legal team to explore every legal avenue available within the framework of Romania’s judicial system.
‘Their sole focus is on ensuring that due process is followed and that their innocence is established in a court of law.’
The pair, who are joint US and UK nationals, were arrested in Bucharest in December 2022
Trump special envoy Richard Grenell said: ‘I support the Tate brothers as evident by my publicly available tweets’
Andrew Tate has labelled Trump ‘the best president in history’ and declared ahead of his election victory that he would be moving back the the US
Grenell insisted that there had been ‘no substantive conversation’ between him and Romanian foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu at the Munich Security Conference, but added that ‘I support the Tate brothers as evident by my publicly available tweets.’
Earlier this month the envoy wrote on X that Romania was an example of a country where US Agency for International Development (USAID) had been ‘weaponised against people and politicians who weren’t woke’.
His comment was in response to Tristan Tate’s request that his supporters find out ‘if any USAID went to Romania to fund any particular Lawfare base investigations’ – an apparent reference to his and his brother’s cases.
Tristan previously boasted about the brothers’ role in the US election, claiming back in November that ‘millions of young men in Europe and the USA have a healthy rightwing approach to politics that they would NOT have if Andrew Tate had never appeared on their phone screens’.
The brothers have millions of followers and are one of the most famous examples of the ‘manosphere’ section of social media, which promotes male superiority and rejects feminism and ‘woke’ ideas.
The usually right-wing network welcomed Trump’s re-election and even played a role in it, building momentum on platforms like TikTok and a X.
Andrew Tate has labelled Trump ‘the best president in history’ and declared ahead of his election victory that he would be moving back the the US, despite the fact he was under house arrest at the time.
Following Trump’s win, Tate posted: ‘THE PATRIARCHY IS BACK,’ before reiterating his belief that women should not be allowed to vote.
Tate has previously described himself as ‘absolutely a misogynist’, while also claiming that ‘I’m a realist and when you’re a realist, you’re sexist. There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist’.
Andrew Tate, centre, and his brother Tristan, right, are brought by police officers to the Court of Appeal, in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, Jan 10, 2023
Last December a Romanian court ruled that the human trafficking case against the brothers could not go to trial due to ‘significant procedural flaws’ by the prosecution, meaning they will now have to bring new evidence to back up their charges or amend them.
Romanian law states the trafficking of adults carries a lengthy prison sentence of up to a decade, as does rape.
The Tate brothers were held in police custody during the criminal investigation from late December 2022 until April 2023, to prevent them from fleeing the country or tampering with evidence.
Romanian prosecutors have said the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them via social media and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage – ultimately pretending to fall in love with them before getting them to work for their business after luring them to their villa on the outskirts of Bucharest.
The victims were then taken to properties outside the capital Bucharest, and through physical violence and mental intimidation were sexually exploited by being forced to produce pornographic content for social media sites that generated large financial gain, prosecutors said.
Tate, who has amassed 10.2million followers on X has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.
The brothers have been accused of 10 allegations of rape and sexual assault from three alleged victims in the UK.
The pair faced complaints from victims who claimed they were drugged and subjected to sexual acts between 2012 and 2015.
Meanwhile a separate civil lawsuit was filed against the brothers last week by a woman in Florida, who alleged that the brothers coerced her into sex work after luring her to Romania.
The woman also accuses them of defaming her after she testified against them in Bucharest.
