In Bucharest & London
EPABritish-American influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate – who are facing trial in Romania on rape and trafficking charges – have arrived in the US after Romanian prosecutors lifted a two-year travel ban.
Andrew, 38, and his brother Tristan, 36, have strongly denied the allegations against them. The two departed Bucharest on a private jet early on Thursday and arrived in Florida hours later.
Romanian prosecutors stressed the case against them had not been dropped and that they remain “under judicial control”- meaning they have to regularly report to authorities and are expected to return to Romania.
However their exit has sparked concerns that prosecutors felt political pressure from the Trump administration. One Romanian politician said she was outraged.
The Tate brothers face charges of rape, trafficking minors and money laundering in Romania.
In the US they also face a civil case from a woman who alleges the brothers coerced her into sex work, and then defamed her after she gave evidence to Romanian authorities.
The brothers also face separate charges in the UK of rape and human trafficking. They deny all the allegations against them.
On Thursday, they arrived at Fort Lauderdale in Florida around 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT) and were seen disembarking the aircraft.
Their arrival in the US, and the decision by Romanian prosecutors allowing them to leave the country, follows comments made by Trump administration figures earlier this month.
The Tates have regularly posted messages in support of US President Donald Trump, and Tristan Tate has said his brother’s role in persuading “millions of young men” to back him “cannot be overlooked”.
Romania’s Foreign Minister has also told Romanian TV that Trump’s envoy for special missions had raised the brothers during a conversation at the Munich Security Conference in Germany a fortnight ago.
Emil Hurezeanu said his discussion with Richard Grenell had only been informal and he did not consider the approach “a form of pressure”. Grenell told the Financial Times his support for the brothers was evident from his “publicly available tweets”.
However, women who have brought sexual abuse allegations against the Tate brothers said last week they were “extremely concerned” by reports that US officials had asked Romania to relax travel restrictions for the men.
Andrew Tate is a self-described misogynist who has attracted millions of followers online, despite being previously banned from social media platforms for expressing his views.
He and his brother were first arrested in Romania in December 2022, with Andrew accused of rape and human trafficking and Tristan suspected of human trafficking.
They both denied the charges and spent several months under house arrest. A year later, in August 2024, they faced new allegations including sex with a minor and trafficking underage persons, all of which they deny.
A former kickboxer who had appeared on UK TV show Big Brother, Andrew had moved from the UK to Romania several years ago. However police in Bedfordshire are still seeking his extradition on separate and unrelated allegations of rape and human trafficking, as well as tax evasion.
In the UK, four British women have filed a civil case against Andrew Tate in the UK High Court, alleging that he raped and coercively controlled them. Tate denies all the allegations against him.
Those plaintiffs said it was clear he would not face criminal prosecution in Romania and appealed to UK authorities to take action.
“We are in disbelief and feel re-traumatised by the news that the Romanian authorities have given into pressure from the Trump administration to allow Andrew Tate to travel around Europe and to the US,” the women said in a statement.
Elena Lasconi, who is running for the Romanian presidency in May’s elections, six months after they were controversially cancelled, has called for the immediate resignation of the head of Romania’s organised crime investigations directorate DIICOT, which made the decision to let the brothers leave.
“I am outraged!” she wrote on social media, “as a woman, a human being and a Romanian.” Lasconi said prosecutors should explain publicly whether their decision had come as a result of external pressure.
Prosecutors from DIICOT have emphasised that the judicial conditions for the brothers have not changed.
Any violation of those obligations made in bad faith “may lead to the replacement of judicial control with a higher measure of deprivation of liberty”, it said in a statement in Romanian.
Following a successful court appeal on Wednesday, the brothers also had multiple assets returned to them which had originally been seized by authorities- including six properties, six cars, and frozen bank accounts.
This comes after court limitations were “modified in order to allow the brothers to travel to the USA,” the statement from the Tates’ representative said.
The Tates are understood to be required to return to Bucharest at the end of March to satisfy the prosecutors’ terms, however it is too early to say whether they will comply with them.
Romania is both a member of the European Union and a key Nato member state on the Western alliance’s eastern flank. It has an extradition treaty with the US.
Senior Trump figures have also had the government in Bucharest in their sights over the court ruling that annulled last December’s presidential election. Romanian intelligence services said far-right candidate Calin Georgescu had been supported by a flurry of TikTok accounts engineered by Russia.
Georgescu was indicted on Wednesday for attempted “incitement to acts against the constitutional order”. He has denied any wrongdoing and has previously called the election annulment a “formalised coup d’etat”. Prosecutors are still investigating the allegations of election fraud.