BUCHAREST, Romania — The self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, were allowed to leave Romania for Florida on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter said, after being forbidden to go abroad while detained on human trafficking charges.
The Tate brothers, who have millions of followers online and are vocal supporters of President Donald Trump, left the country around 5:30 a.m. local time on a private jet, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. Romania lifted its travel restriction after pressure from the Trump administration, the person added. The Romanian Foreign Ministry and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a statement, Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) said two defendants holding British and American citizenship were allowed to leave Romania but will remain under “judicial supervision.”
The statement did not name the two people, but a spokesperson for DIICOT, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, confirmed they are the Tate brothers, who are dual citizens of Britain and the United States.
Despite the permission to leave the country, they are still obliged to answer to Romanian officials over their court case, “including appearing before authorities when summoned,” DIICOT said. “Failure to comply could result in stricter legal measures.”
The brothers were arrested in Romania in December 2022 and charged with human trafficking and forming an organized crime group and were not allowed to leave the country over concerns they would not return. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. They deny the charges.
Conviction in Romania on charges of human trafficking can carry penalties of between three and 10 years. For rape, penalties can range between five and 10 years.
They also face charges in Britain as part of a separate investigation into “allegations of rape and human trafficking,” according to the Bedfordshire police. A Romanian court ruled last year that they would be extradited to Britain after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded. It was not immediately clear how their departure from Romania on Thursday would affect the U.K. case; the Bedfordshire police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last March, the Tate brothers rejected the U.K. charges, saying they “express profound disappointment that such serious allegations are being resurrected without substantial new evidence.”
Andrew Tate is a former kickboxer who built an online persona that drew millions of followers based on a sense of hyper-masculinity. Both brothers were born in the United States but moved to Bedfordshire, in southern England, after their parents divorced.
He has said that people who are raped “bear some responsibility” and that women are the property of their husbands. Fans have called him the “king of toxic masculinity.”
Both brothers frequently espouse right-wing views on U.S. and European politics and celebrated Trump’s return to office. On Feb, 12, Andrew Tate posted on X: “The Tates will be free, Trump is the president. The good old days are back. And they will be better than ever. Hold on.”
Tristan Tate has echoed those sentiments, writing on X that Trump “will bring America back.” In November, he celebrated Trump’s 2024 election win and claimed credit for making young men “immune” to what he called a “woke mind virus.”
Craw reported from London.
