CNN
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Self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan recently arrived in Florida from Romania, where they are facing charges of human trafficking, setting off a fervor of concern and anger – and a state-level criminal investigation.
Andrew Tate gained notoriety as an online influencer and has amassed a massive following peddling sexist content about male dominance. He and Tristan were previously banned from leaving Romania after being arrested in 2022 and charged with forming an organized criminal group and human trafficking.
The brothers, who have dual American and British citizenship, left Romania on a private jet at the end of February after Romanian authorities lifted travel restrictions on them.
The brothers have denied all wrongdoing, and Andrew Tate has made contradictory claims on X about their plans to return to Romania or stay in Florida. Here’s how we got here.
What are the Tate brothers known for?
Andrew Tate, 38, has faced allegations of sexism, hateful behavior and violence against women since he was removed from the British reality TV show “Big Brother” in 2016 after video emerged that appeared to show him attacking a woman with a belt.
Tate turned to social media, where he has cultivated a following of supporters – many of whom are young men and boys – promoting his troubling take on modern masculinity. His 36-year-old brother, Tristan, also appeared on a British reality TV show, “Shipwrecked: The Island,” and has developed an online persona similar to his brother’s.
Andrew Tate’s vitriolic content got him banned from almost every social media platform, but when tech mogul Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, he reinstated Tate’s account.
Musk is now a high-profile adviser to President Donald Trump, and Tate has 10.7 million followers on the platform where he once claimed that women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted.
Tate, a vocal supporter of Trump, often evokes the president’s name in his online rants.
“The Tates will be free, Trump is the president. The good old days are back. And they will be better than ever. Hold on,” Andrew Tate previously said on X.
Despite reports that the Trump administration pressed Romanian authorities to ease restrictions on the brothers, White House officials have said the US government had no direct role in bringing the Tates to Florida. Romania’s foreign minister said he did not face pressure to lift restrictions on the social media influencer.
When asked about the Tates return to the United States, Trump said he knew nothing about it.
Tristan Tate said in a social media post on Friday that he plans to use his time in the US to take a break and visit with family.
“I decided to catch some rest and respite in my home country and reunite with my family who they have kept me from. It hasn’t been easy,” he said, referencing his legal woes abroad.
CNN has reached out to the Tate brothers and their representatives.
What charges are the brothers facing – and where?
Romanian authorities arrested the Tate brothers in December 2022 and placed them under police custody. They were later placed under house arrest and then judicial control, under which they were not allowed to leave the country.
Romanian prosecutors accused the Tate brothers of forming an organized criminal group that stretched across Romania, the United Kingdom and the US, trafficking women and sexually exploiting them with physical violence and coercion.
Prosecutors have said the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage. Andrew Tate is also accused of raping one of the victims.
Last August, Romanian authorities launched a separate investigation into allegations of human trafficking of minors and sex with a minor lodged against the brothers. Andrew and Tristan Tate have denied all allegations of wrongdoing, with Andrew writing on X that the brothers “have always been innocent.”
In a statement issued after the brothers left the country, Romanian prosecutors said that only the travel restrictions against the brothers had been lifted, while “all other obligations remain in effect, including the requirement to appear before judicial authorities whenever summoned.”
“Prosecutors in Romania wield significant discretion,” Joseph McBride, an attorney representing the brothers, told CNN in an email. “The Romanian prosecutor, who had long demanded that Andrew and Tristan’s movements be restricted, decided to lift those restrictions for perfectly legitimate reasons.”
He added that the brothers “are here to stay.”
The brothers are also being investigated for allegations of rape and human trafficking in the UK, where they have also denied wrongdoing.
Four women in the UK filed a civil suit against Andrew Tate, accusing him of rape and coercive control.
“We are in disbelief and feel re-traumatized by the news that the Romanian authorities have given into pressure from the Trump administration to allow Andrew Tate to travel… to the US,” the women said in the statement previously shared with CNN.
The Tates filed a defamation suit in July 2023 against a Florida woman who accused them of human trafficking, rape and false imprisonment in Romania.
Well-resourced clients like Andrew Tate are often able to finance “salt the earth” litigation, according to Craig Trocino, associate professor of clinical legal education at the University of Miami School of Law. That can include filing defamation lawsuits against accusers or detractors, creating legal challenges or employing stalling tactics meant to distract from the original issue, he said.
Suing an accuser, who may not have the resources to support a long legal battle, can also have a “chilling effect” on other alleged victims coming forward, Trocino noted.
But wealth can’t insulate a person from accountability if they have committed a crime, so long as prosecutors are doing their jobs, he added.
“Just because you have a ton of money and a huge bullhorn of a platform, doesn’t mean that you get to get away with it,” Trocino said. “Eventually it catches up.”
The Florida investigation
“I think my brother and I are largely misunderstood. There’s a lot of opinions about us – all the things that go around about us on the internet,” Andrew Tate told reporters outside the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida after arriving from Romania.
“It’s supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, as my brother and I are,” he said.
Days later, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced an active criminal investigation into the brothers, led by the Office of Statewide Prosecution, adding that Florida has “zero tolerance for people who abuse women and girls.”
CNN has reached out to Uthmeier’s office for more information about the investigation.
“Today, Attorney General James Uthmeier threw ethics law out of the window when he publicly took a side in an ongoing Florida lawsuit,” McBride said on X Tuesday.
“When any prosecutor, even the Attorney General of a jurisdiction like Florida, has reason to believe that a crime has been committed or is currently being committed, they have every right to investigate,” Trocino said. “They’re under no obligation to explain what the investigation is while they’re investigating it.”
While few details have been released, the fact that the Office of Statewide Prosecution is involved suggests a wide-ranging investigation into activity across multiple jurisdictions in the state, Trocino said.
The Tate brothers have since taken aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who previously suggested they were not welcome in his state, and Uthmeier for pursuing the investigation.
“This is coming from a lifelong criminal defense lawyer: To go out and say, ‘I’m innocent until proven guilty, therefore they can’t investigate me,’ is just fundamentally, legally and constitutionally incorrect,” Trocino said.
By Friday afternoon, Andrew Tate was posting messages on X that suggested he was in Las Vegas.
“Fleeing our jurisdiction will not stop Florida’s ongoing criminal investigation,” Uthmeier said on X. “We will continue working with our law enforcement and partners around the world to fight human trafficking and sexual abuse.”
CNN’s Michelle Watson, Sophie Tanno, Amy Croffey, Christian Edwards, James Legge, Catherine Nicholls and Emmanuel Miculita contributed to this report.