Andrew Tate: Live flight tracker shows private jet flying brothers ‘to US, Florida’

An appeals court in Romania ruled in December that the human trafficking case against influencer Andrew Tate, his brother and two Romanian women cannot go to trial because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors.

The court effectively returned case to the prosecutors, who can now bring forth new evidence to back up their charges, or amend and change the existing ones. In November, the same court gave prosecutors five days to amend their case file or withdraw it.

The request for the appeals court to review the case was made by Tate’s defense team. His spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said the court’s decision “confirms the lack of credible evidence or consistency in the accusations” by the prosecutors.

“The review revealed significant procedural flaws and raised serious concerns about the integrity of the investigative process, further undermining the credibility of the prosecution’s case,” she said.

Four women who have accused Tate of rape and coercive control and have brought a civil claim against him in the UK have said the news has left them “retraumatised”.

In a joint statement, they said: “We are in disbelief and feel retraumatised 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.

“We can only hope that the British authorities finally take action, do something about this terrifying unfolding situation and ensure he faces justice in the UK.”

Just two weeks ago, an American woman accused Andrew and Tristan Tate of coercing her to Romania under false pretenses, attempting to “recruit her” into a sex work and then “bullying and harassing” her in a defamation suit.

The civil suit was filed Monday in a Florida court, where the Tate brothers — known online for their misogynistic comments — sued the unnamed woman for defamation in 2023. They hold US and UK citizenship but have been residing in Romania since 2015.

This latest lawsuit marks the first case against the Tate brothers in the US, according to the New York Times.

Doe is represented by lawyers at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.

Joseph McBride, a lawyer for the Tate brothers, told The Independent in an email: “[The center’s] civil suit represents a poorly constructed and desperate attempt to relitigate the failed Romanian criminal case in a U.S. court. Shockingly, [the center] has blatantly disregarded Judge Curley’s order to seal the Romanian indictment by copying and pasting large sections of the Romanian indictment into their flawed lawsuit. We will be seeking sanctions immediately.” He noted he “looks forward to” the defamation trial.

Doe’s lawyer, Dani Pinter who is senior vice president at the center, told The Independent: “The Tate Brothers supposedly sued Jane Doe because they claimed her testimony to Romanian authorities was a lie. Now, when for the first time Jane Doe tells her side of the story, they threaten sanctions. I think that speaks for itself as to where the truth lies.”

Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said in a statement on Thursday that prosecutors approved a “request to modify the obligation preventing the defendants from leaving Romania,” but that judicial control measures remained in place.

The agency did not say who had made the request.

“These include the requirement to appear before judicial authorities whenever summoned,” the statement read.

“The defendants have been warned that deliberately violating these obligations may result in judicial control being replaced with a stricter deprivation of liberty measure.”

Days before boarding a flight supposedly to the US, Tristan Tate posted a cryptic final message on X with a picture of a magic trick from psychological thriller The Prestige.

In a caption, he wrote: “Are you watching closely?”

Both brothers are charged with human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in Romania, and were first arrested in late 2022 alongside two women.

They have repeatedly denied the charges against them, and after a period in custody, they were released under house arrest.

In December a court in Bucharest ruled that the case against the Tates and the two Romanian women could not go to trial because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors.

That decision by the Bucharest Court of Appeal was a huge setback for Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, but it did not mean the defendants could walk free.

The case has not been closed, and there is also a separate legal case against the brothers in Romania.

An official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said the decision was at the discretion of prosecutors.

Andrew Tate, 38, and Tristan Tate, 36 — who are dual U.S.-British citizens — were arrested near Romania’s capital in late 2022 along with two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last year.

In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that a trial could start but did not set a date. All four deny all of the allegations.

According to the FT’s sources, a request was made during these discussions to return the brothers’ passports and permit them to travel while awaiting the conclusion of court proceedings.

However, Hurezeanu insists he was not pressured by Grenell during their conversation at the Munich Security Conference.

Tate, the highest profile suspect facing trial for human trafficking in Romania, was banned from almost all social media platforms before Trump’s now adviser Elon Musk took over X and reinstated his account.

Hurezeanu told Euronews late on Tuesday he had had an informal chat with Grenell in a hallway during the Munich conference. Hurezeanu cited Grenell as saying he remained interested in the fate of the Tate brothers.

“I did not perceive this statement as pressure, just a repeat of a known stance,” Hurezeanu said.

“I don’t know what pressures of another nature were made before or after but what I discussed with Mr Grenell was cordial, informal, brief, non-binding and I certainly did not detect any form of pressure.”

Former boxer Andrew Tate has amassed millions of followers across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok over the past decade.

But he has also seen his accounts banned over inflammatory statements he has made, often appearing to advocate violence against women, which the platforms ruled violated their policies.

Frequently accused of embodying toxic masculinity and misogyny, having claimed that women cannot drive, belong in the home and are a man’s property, Mr Tate has made inconsistent statements on the subject.

He told the Anything Goes with James English podcast in June 2021 that he was “absolutely sexist” and “absolutely a misogynist”, only to then claim on Piers Morgan Uncensored more recently that he was “absolutely not”.

He has also claimed that his remarks, viewed by millions online, are made in the persona of a “comic character” and have been unfairly taken out of context.

But he has found an eager audience online for his messages of male empowerment, with teachers increasingly coming forward to express concern about his potentially radicalising influence on impressionable teenage boys, fearing they could take the wrong lessons from pronouncements like the “41 Tenets” on his website.

Romanian prosecutors approved the request of internet personality Andrew Tate to travel outside Romania pending criminal investigation, they said on Thursday.

Local media reported earlier that Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan left Romania on a private flight for the United States early on Thursday.