By Amy Croffey, Christian Edwards, James Legge, Emmanuel Miculita and Catherine Nicholls, CNN
The Tates. Photo: DANIEL MIHAILESCU / AFP
Right-wing influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after leaving Romania on a private jet Thursday, according to Mateea Petrescu, the brothers' spokesperson.
The Tate brothers, who are dual US and UK nationals, had previously been banned from leaving Romania after being arrested in 2022 and charged with rape, human trafficking, money laundering and starting an organised crime group. They have denied all wrongdoing.
Ioan Gliga, their lawyer, told CNN that the brothers left Romania Thursday morning and flew to Florida.
"They no longer have a travel ban… The prosecutor, at the request of the lawyers, modified the content of the obligations previously imposed," Gliga said.
Petrescu, the brothers' spokesperson, would not comment on who chartered or paid for the plane.
Reports of pressure to lift travel ban
The decision by Romanian authorities to lift the ban came after the US reportedly put pressure on Bucharest to ease restrictions on Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist who has a huge online following and has become a cause célèbre on the American right.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported, citing sources, that President Donald Trump's administration had pressed Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on Tate, first in a phone call, then when Trump's special envoy Richard Grenell met Romania's Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Hurezeanu later confirmed that he had discussed the Tate brothers with US officials, but said he had not been pressured to lift restrictions on them. A spokesperson for Romania's Foreign Ministry told CNN on Thursday there was "no pressure, no solicitations" in the discussions.
In a statement Thursday, Romanian prosecutors stressed that only the travel restrictions had been lifted, while "all other obligations remain in effect, including the requirement to appear before judicial authorities whenever summoned".
Gliga, the lawyer, told CNN that the Tate brothers will return to Romania in less than a month for their next court appearance on 24 March.
The decision to lift travel restrictions has been broadly criticised by politicians in Romania.
Elena Lasconi, a candidate for the presidential election in May, said she is "outraged" by the decision and said authorities must explain whether their decision was made under external pressure.
"We cannot accept that Romania's image is tarnished by impunity and defiance," Lasconi said. "Otherwise, what message are we sending to the world? That anyone with money and influence can get away with it in Romania?"
'Re-traumatised'
As well as charges in Romania, Tate is also facing civil action in the United Kingdom from four women who allege they were raped and coercively controlled by him before he gained his huge online following. Tate denies the allegations.
In a statement shared with CNN, the women said they are "in disbelief and feel re-traumatised" by reports that he has been allowed to leave Romania, and said they feared Tate would use his newfound freedom to "continue to spread a violent, misogynistic doctrine around the world."
"There is now a major risk that the criminal prosecution for his alleged crimes in Romania will not proceed," they said.
Matthew Jury, the lawyer representing the alleged victims, told CNN that "any notion that the Tates will return to Romania if there is a risk of them being jailed is fanciful".
Jury added that Romania "may not have relinquished judicial control [over the Tates], but they have relinquished any effective or practical control."
In a previous statement, Jury said that Bucharest had "embarrassed itself" in lifting the travel restrictions and that he found the decision "disgusting and dismaying".
Later Thursday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to meet Trump for talks in Washington, DC. Jury said he hopes Starmer uses the meeting "to raise this issue" on behalf of the alleged British victims.
Tate - who shot to internet fame in recent years, racking up billions of views on TikTok with diatribes about male dominance, female submission and wealth - was banned from almost all social media platforms before Trump's now adviser Elon Musk took over X and reinstated his account.
In Romania, the first criminal case against Tate and his brother failed in December when a Bucharest court decided not to start the trial, citing flaws in the indictment.
A Romanian court lifted a house arrest order against Tate in January, replacing it with a lighter preventative measure. In October, a court ruled he should get back luxury cars worth about €4 million (NZ$7.4 million) that were seized by prosecutors, pending the investigations.
- CNN
