Controversial social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate flew into Florida Thursday amid a Romania human trafficking investigation and quickly sought a temporary restraining order against an American woman who had accused the brothers of “luring” her to Romania to “recruit” her into sex work.
The brothers arrived at the Fort Lauderdale airport after a Romanian court ruled they could finally leave the country after more than two years. The Tates are accused of human trafficking and forming an organized criminal group to sexually exploit women in Romania. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. The brothers have denied all allegations.
Romanian prosecutors lifted the travel ban, but President Donald Trump said Thursday he knew "nothing about” their plans to come to the U.S.
The brothers quickly headed Thursday to a hearing in Florida in their 2023 defamation case against the 23-year-old American woman identified as Jane Doe, whom the Tates are now accusing of putting their safety at risk.
Earlier this month Jane Doe filed a civil suit against the brothers, claiming they sued her for defamation to “disrupt the Romanian prosecution” and to “bully and harass” her into recanting her testimony against them. The brothers have denied any wrongdoing.
Thursday’s hearing was scheduled for 10:15 a.m. But 15 minutes later, the brothers asked the judge for a temporary restraining order against Doe, claiming she “harassed and threatened” them, which they argued put them in “imminent concern for their safety.”
In response to the restraining order request, Doe’s lawyer, Dani Pinter, told The Independent in a statement: "These allegations are completely fabricated and not supported by any evidence.”
Pinter called the filing an “attempt to perpetrate fraud upon the court.”
She added: “The Tate Brothers and their attorneys know that Jane Doe has never made such threats against them, and they are not afraid of her — however, they are clearly afraid of her testimony. “
Jane Doe is the “one who needs protection from the Tate Brothers,” Pinter stressed. She is a “young woman with no money or connections, whereas the Tate Brothers are large and imposing world-famous men who have bragged about crushing their enemies and using violence."
Lawyers for the Tate brothers claimed the “threats” they linked to Doe came in the form of text messages and "coordinated social media attacks” against them, their friends, and business interests.
The messages contain "explicit threats of violence, harm, or other dangerous actions toward” the brothers, including "destroying the lives” of the Tates, “wanting to watch them suffer,” “using biological weapons” on the brothers and their friends, and killing them, the court filing states.
The brothers have reason to believe the woman can act on these threats, based on videos capturing her “firing automatic-style assault rifles and what appear to be admissions to psychiatric facilities for treatment of various psychiatric conditions enumerated in the text messages of Jane Doe,” the court filing claims.
It would have been unlikely that she had the means to carry out violence against them while they were in Romania, but now that the brothers are in Florida, she can “easily harm” them, their lawyers argued.
Given the “nature and urgency” of these threats, the Tates are seeking a temporary restraining order preventing Doe from contacting, threatening, harming or harassing them, as they will suffer “imminent harm” if the court doesn’t immediately intervene.
The order would also prohibit Doe from coming within 500 feet of the Tates’ home or workplace, and from communicating with the brothers through social media or other means.
In her civil suit against the brothers, Jane Doe alleges that Tristan “lured” her from Florida “under the pretense of a romantic relationship” after they had met online in 2021 when she was 20 years old.
At some point, according to the suit, Tristan told her he loved her and encouraged her to move to Europe to be with him. She did, but when she arrived, she quickly felt her experience “was not normal,” and Tristan became “rarely available,” the lawsuit states.
She moved into the Tates’ house where other women were living, most of whom were working on OnlyFans; she had been told that two of them were Andrew’s girlfriends, according to the suit. One of the women said she knew things about the Tate brothers “that if she ever told anyone about, she would end up dead,” the filing states.
Jane Doe and another woman in the house, identified as Mary Doe in the lawsuit, discussed how the others in the house were working with the Tates to “groom and manipulate them,” so they plotted an escape, the suit says.
Jane told her parents and a friend about her experience, and the U.S. Embassy was notified. Romanian authorities reportedly raided the brothers’ compound in April 2022, freeing Jane and Mary.
Months later, in December, the brothers were arrested in Romania and launched their “campaign to harass and intimidate" the women, Jane Doe’s lawsuit recounts. The following month, the Tates sent a letter through their lawyer threatening to sue Jane’s parents for $30 million if she didn’t recant her testimony to Romanian authorities, according to Doe’s complaint.
Upon the Tates’ arrival in Florida, Pinter said in a statement: “It seems clear the U.S. intervened in Romania to assist the Tate brothers who are being prosecuted for sex trafficking over 35 women including minors. This is a slap in the face to all the victims of the Tate brothers, especially the U.S. victim who is not being protected by her country.”
Speaking outside the courthouse, Andrew Tate insisted he and his brother are “largely misunderstood.”
There’s a “lot of opinions about us, a lot of things that go around about us on the internet. We’ve yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives ever. We have no criminal record anywhere on the planet, ever.”
Last December, a Romanian court ruled that the human trafficking case against the brothers couldn’t go to trial due to “significant procedural flaws” by the prosecution, but the case was sent back to officials for further review. The brothers also face rape and sexual aggression accusations in Britain.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said that the brothers are not welcome in his state.
"Florida is not a place where you're welcome with that type of conduct,” he said Thursday at a press conference. He said his administration had nothing to do with the brothers being allowed to leave Romania.
