Andrew Tate lands in Florida, DeSantis recoils over sex trafficking charges
Members of President Donald Trump's administration reportedly pushed officials in Romania to allow Tate and his brother to leave the country.
BUCHAREST, Romania − Internet personality Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan arrived in Florida from left Romania on a private flight after prosecutors lifted a travel ban.
The source said the brothers would return towards the end of March to fulfil legal obligations related to their criminal case in Romania, which require them to check in with police at regular intervals.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said his state was "not a place where you're welcome with that type of conduct," and that the Florida attorney general was looking at what jurisdiction the Florida had to "deal with this."
"We have no criminal record anywhere on the planet, ever," Andrew Tate told reporters in Fort Lauderdale.
The Tate brothers are under investigation in Romania on accusations of forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering. They have denied all wrongdoing.
Trump deputies supported Andrew Tate
The Financial Times reported last week, citing sources, that members of President Donald Trump's administration had pressured Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on the Tates, former kickboxers with dual U.S. and British citizenship.
Romania's Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu denied he had faced pressure, but said the Tates were mentioned during a brief hallway meeting with Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.
On Thursday, Trump said he didn't know about the case.
Pending the criminal investigation, the Tates are under judicial control, a light preventative measure under which they are required to check in with the police regularly. They were first detained in 2022.
A self-described misogynist, social media influencer Tate has gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say denigrates women.
Until this week, the brothers were also banned from leaving Romania, a measure that prosecutors said on Thursday had been lifted.
"The request to change the obligation of not leaving Romania was approved," prosecutors said.
"All the other obligations have been maintained, including the requirement to check in with judicial authorities every time they are called."
A first criminal case against Tate and his brother failed in December when a Bucharest court decided not to start the trial and sent the files back to prosecutors citing flaws in the indictment.
A British arrest warrant has also been issued for the Tates and they will be extradited after Romanian trial proceedings are completed. The allegations in Britain - denied by them - relate to sexual aggression between 2012 and 2015.
Andrew Tate's online instructional videos direct men to, among other things, physically assault women who accuse them of cheating, according to extremism-tracking group the Anti-Defamation League. "It's bang out the machete, boom in her face, you grip her up by the neck," Tate says in one video.