Romania's justice minister has denied that U.S. pressure was a factor in releasing the self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate, who flew to Florida last week despite facing charges including rape, human trafficking and forming an organized crime group.
Tate is a popular social media figure who has publicly claimed to have made $300,000 to $600,000 per month from coercing women to perform sexual acts on the internet. He also frequently trumpets his support of U.S. President Donald Trump to his more than 10-million followers on X.
Officials from the Trump administration reportedly advocated on behalf of Tate and his brother, Tristan, who had been held in Romania since their 2022 arrest. Less than two weeks later, they took a private jet to Fort Lauderdale.
"I have no knowledge of any pressure," Justice Minister Radu Marinescu told Public Record, an OCCRP member center. “Authorities from other states have made no official request.”
He did not explain the legal reasoning behind the decision to let the Tates leave, saying he doesn't “know the actual content of the cases.”
The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), which lifted the restriction on the Tates’ leaving the country, did not respond to requests for comment.
The move baffled many observers, and the lack of an explanation from authorities has led many to suspect a backroom deal.
“We believe, based on the information available to us, that Romania bowed to inappropriate political pressure from the Trump administration,” said Jack Beeston of the U.K. law firm McCue Jury & Partners.
Beeston’s firm is representing four women in the U.K. who accuse Andrew Tate in a civil case of abuses including rape. Both brothers are also wanted in the U.K. on criminal charges of rape and human trafficking. British authorities obtained approval to extradite the Tates once their Romanian case wrapped up.
The Tate brothers are dual U.K. and U.S. citizens. They have denied the allegations against them in both the U.K. and Romania. Their Romanian lawyer did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Augustin Lazăr, a former Romanian general prosecutor, warned that prosecutors may put their case at risk by letting the suspects leave.
“We are living in dramatic, turbulent times,” Lazăr said. “In this context, the Romanian judicial authority has assumed a great responsibility by allowing the defendants to leave for the country of which they are citizens.”
In a statement last week, DIICOT said the Tates are required to come back to Romania for court appearances.
“We now seriously doubt whether the Tates will ever return to Romania, and feel that the decision of the Romanian authorities has badly jeopardised the criminal case in that country,” said Beeston.
Marinescu said “it is in the interests” of the Tates to present their defense in court, but noted that a verdict could be handed down in absentia, and Romania could then seek extradition from the U.S.
“Both Romania and the United States of America are democracies, states that respect the law and have mechanisms of judicial cooperation,” Marinescu said.
Trump has said he knew “nothing about” pressure on Romania. The Financial Times reported that members of the Trump administration had spoken to Romanian officials about the Tate case at least twice. Romania’s foreign minister, Emil Hurezeanu, told Euronews he discussed the Tate case, but said he wasn’t pressured.
Such statements have failed to dampen rumors in Romania.
“Now there is also an increasingly diminished trust in justice,” said Andreea Bragă of FILIA Center, a feminist advocacy group.
“The Tate brothers' departure from Romania, under conditions where there is suspicion of external influence on the authorities' decision to lift restrictions, and without clear reasons behind this decision, sends the message that you can escape justice if you have money and political power,” she said.
