Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrested in Miami, US Marshals Service tells AP
Impressive siblings Andrew and Tristan Tate2017, whose social media empire promoting wealth, male domination and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities, was arrested in Miami on Saturday after British authorities sought their extradition on rape and sex trafficking charges.
The brothers were detained by the U.S. Marshals on a sealed warrant, agency spokesman Brady McCarron told The Associated Press, placing the United States at the center of an international legal saga stretching from Romania to England.
British prosecutors announced On Saturday, they announced that they were demanding the extradition of the brothers, claiming that they had incriminated them. women who were raped and trafficked Between 2010 and 2017.
US and British citizens moved to Romania in 2016. They were arrested there in 2022 and accused of participating in schemes that encouraged the sexual exploitation of women. They denied these allegations and the case did not proceed due to legal and procedural irregularities.
The brothers are expected to appear in Miami federal court early next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations.
The ongoing accusations in the UK accused the brothers of harassing women in an area of north London where they grew up. His lawyers said they denied the allegations.
Joseph McBride, the lawyer representing the Tate brothers, said in a telephone interview on Saturday evening that he could not speak to his clients, but that the new accusations from the United Kingdom were “dirt and slander” aimed at derailing defamation lawsuits filed by the brothers in the United States.
“They are doing everything they can to make sure these men never have their day in court again,” McBride said.
“We believe Andrew and Tristan Tate will be freed if a competent judge sees the facts and confronts this appalling abuse of the Justice Department’s own authority. America is not doing Britain’s political dirty work
Andrew Tate, 39, first reached mainstream audiences in 2016 as a contestant on the U.K. reality television show “Big Brother.” He was removed from the program after a video emerged showing Tate attacking a woman. He and his brother Tristan Tate, 38, are strong supporters of US President Donald Trump.
Andrew Tate has over 10 million followers on X but has been banned from platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for violating hate speech rules. His most condemned rhetoric includes comments that women who are sexually assaulted should bear some responsibility for the attacks, graphic descriptions of how he might attack women, and criticisms of people seeking treatment for mental illness.
The Tate brothers have consistently denied allegations of abuse and human trafficking, claiming violent and misogynistic remarks were taken out of context or meant in jest.
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AP writer Savannah Peters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed.
