Andrew and Tristian Tate’s lawyer claims influencers are victims of ‘political witch hunt’
A lawyer for brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate has claimed the controversial social media influencers are victims of a “political witch hunt” and vowed to fight their extradition to the UK to face rape and sex trafficking charges.
Speaking outside a court in Miami, Joe McBride argued his clients were “under attack for what they said, not what they did” and branded Britain “a fallen state that prosecutes its citizens for free speech”.
He referenced the arrest of a woman for praying outside an abortion clinic, while also claiming that political activist Tommy Robinson was targeted “simply for exercising his rights to free speech.”
Mr McBride also raised the possibility of US President Donald Trump interfering with the extradition proceedings, arguing that he was “elected to fight this kind of nonsense”.
The Tate brothers, who have dual US and British citizenship, were arrested by US police officers over the weekend and were due to appear in court on Monday.
They were detained after British authorities leveled more accusations against them.
Andrew Tate, 39, was charged with seven additional counts of rape, three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and 19 additional charges for offenses related to indecent images of children and extreme pornography.
Tristan Tate, 38, was charged with one count of sexual assault, two counts of rape and three counts of organizing or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the 38 additional charges, in addition to the existing 21 charges, relate to alleged offenses between July 2010 and August 2017.
The brothers have previously denied any wrongdoing.
Mr McBride said: “Of course we will fight extradition.”
Describing the further charges as “salacious and defamatory”, he said: “Some of them are despicable, meritless, heinous and atrocious. They’re designed to poison the jury pool, to re-poison public consciousness.”
Mr McBride added: “We have not seen a single piece of evidence to suggest these men are guilty of anything. They are being punished and attacked for what they say, not what they do.”
“You can love them, you can hate them, but no one should go to jail for free speech and that’s exactly what this is about.
“Make no mistake about it, the United Kingdom was once the greatest empire the world has ever known. A fallen nation. A fallen state that prosecutes its citizens for freedom of expression.”
He continued: “This is not what democracies and free societies do. This is what Communist China and despotic regimes do. And we will fight them at every turn, at every corner, because they are American citizens.”
Mr. McBride argued that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others in the administration were “not fans of communism.”
He said: “They are not in favor of prosecuting people for freedom of expression. That’s one of the reasons they were elected.”
“So I think, in principle, based on the reason they were elected, they would not want to see two free citizens going to a country where they would be imprisoned for political reasons.”
He added: “I can’t comment directly on what my president will do. All I can say is that he was elected to combat this kind of nonsense and I can’t see him looking at this objectively and agreeing to a political witch hunt and a political kidnapping.”
Mr. McBride expected the legal process to take about 60 days.
He said: “It could be a little bit longer. It could be a little bit shorter depending on what kind of turbulence is going on for us. But I think we’ll be in that situation for the next two months for the foreseeable future.”
