Former kickboxer Andrew Tate, accused of rape and sex trafficking has President Donald Trump fighting for him.
The Trump White House has put pressure on authorities in Romania to allow travel for Tate, a divisive influencer who had until last month been under house arrest in the country since August, according to the Financial Times.
Tate, his brother Tristan Tate and four other suspects face accusations of human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, money laundering, and forming an organized criminal group. They deny the charges.
The court replaced the strict house arrest order on Tate with a lesser “judicial control” measure until the outcome of a criminal investigation. This means they can move around Romania, but Trump’s inner circle want more.
The matter was reportedly discussed with Romania’s foreign minister on the sidelines at the Munich Security Conference last week.
The Financial Times reported that Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell was pulled aside by Romania’s foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu. The paper said the Trump administration applied pressure on the Romanians.
This was confirmed by three unnamed sources, while a fourth told the British newspaper that a formal request was made to allow the brothers to travel before their legal case has concluded.
Hurezeanu’s spokesperson confirmed the pair had talked but didn’t elaborate. “Romanian courts are independent and operate based on the law, there is due process,” he told the paper.
Grenell claimed Hurezeanu asked for a meeting and also reaffirmed his support for the dual U.S.-British citizens. “I support the Tate brothers as evident by my publicly available tweets,” he said.
Under the latest court order, Tate must not leave Romania, has to regularly check in with police and cannot speak with witnesses in the case.
Tate and his brother will be extradited to the UK after the trial, regardless of the result. They face separate allegations there —on suspicion of rape, human trafficking, and forming and organizing a crime group to sexually exploit women.
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