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Andrew Tate instructed his associates to recruit two right-wing politicians to help him fight allegations of rape and human trafficking while in police custody, according to wiretaps of his calls submitted to a court by Romanian prosecutors.
The internet celebrity instructed two associates to tell Romanian politicians, George Simion and Diana Iovanovici-Sosoaca, that he was being set up and that supporting him would be “very good for their careers,” according to one of the exchanges.
“So make them clear: You’re going to get a lot of votes if Tate says you’re taking their side,” the former kickboxer said in the Jan. 28 appeal to two of his associates.
Transcripts of the tapped calls are contained in a previously unpublished court document, dated February 21, compiled by Bucharest court officials and reviewed by Reuters.
Simion, a politician in Romania’s lower house, told Reuters he was never approached by Tate or his associates, and would not publicly support Tate if asked.
Andrew Tate instructed his associates to recruit two right-wing politicians to help him fight allegations of rape and human trafficking while in police custody, according to wiretaps of his calls submitted to a court by Romanian prosecutors. Pictured: Tate and his brother Tristan are due to appear in Romania’s appeals court on Monday
The internet celebrity instructed two associates to tell Romanian politicians, George Simion (pictured) and Diana Iovanovici-Sosoaca, that he was being framed and that supporting him “would be very good for their careers,” according to one of the exchanges.
Andrew Tate instructed his associates to recruit two right-wing politicians, George Simion and Diana Iovanovici-Sosoaca (pictured), to help him fight allegations of rape and human trafficking while in police custody, according to wiretaps of his calls made by Romanian prosecutors had been presented to a court
When asked if he thought Tate had been set up, he replied: “The court system will decide, not the politicians.”
A spokesman for Iovanovici-Sosoaca, a senator, said the tapped conversations were “lies” designed to attack her.
The tapped calls were made between Jan. 28 and Jan. 31, according to prosecutors, about a month after Tate, 36, was detained with his 34-year-old brother Tristan on suspicion of rape, trafficking and forming an organized crime group.
The brothers have denied all allegations. Reuters could not reach them in police custody for comment.
The Tates’ lawyer, Eugen Vidineac, and a spokesman for prosecutors, who had been contacted about the wiretapping, declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.
British-American Tate, who has lived mostly in Romania since 2017, is an online influencer and self-proclaimed misogynist who has built a following of millions of fans, especially among young men attracted to his hyper-macho image.
The tapped calls offer a glimpse into his multifaceted attempts to defend himself while in detention, efforts that extend beyond the courtroom into the realms of politics and social media.
Also in the Jan. 28 appeal, detailed in the court document, Tate directs his associate Luke to release “party clips” on social media in which he says at least one of his alleged trafficking victims dances in Bucharest.
The internet celebrity (pictured on Feb. 27) instructed two associates to tell Romanian politicians, George Simion and Diana Iovanovici-Sosoaca, that he was being framed and that backing him “would be very good for their careers,” according to one of the exchanges.
“Yeah, put them everywhere and say, ‘This girl says she was kidnapped when she wasn’t kidnapped,’” says Tate.
“You say you want me to discredit them, that social media is pulling hard on me, yes?” asks Luke.
“Yeah, fuck ’em,” Tate replies.
The court document includes the minutes of a February 21 hearing in Bucharest when a judge extended the Tates’ detention until the end of March, as well as evidence submitted by prosecutors alleging the brothers ran a human trafficking operation aimed at creating online pornography.
Alexandru Risnita, another lawyer for the Tates, rejected suggestions that the brothers posed a flight risk if they were released from custody during the investigation, the minutes show.
He said it would be very difficult for his clients to travel unnoticed because they were “the most famous people in the world right now.”
Meanwhile, Tina Glandian, Tate’s lawyer, called her client a “martyr of free speech” and said there is no evidence of the allegations he is under investigation for.
Glandian told Times Radio on Wednesday: “There is no evidence in the file of human trafficking. There is no evidence of violence or coercion, or forced transportation, or forced labor, or any form of women’s deprivation of liberty, which is at the heart of any human trafficking charge.
“They have been under investigation for a long time and they have not been charged.”
Ms Glandian said both Tate brothers have “public personas” where they say things their audiences want to hear.
Tate, 36, was arrested in December along with his brother Tristan, 34, on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group to exploit women
“That’s not evidence of crime, that’s not who they are as private individuals and that’s not what should be considered evidence in a court of law,” she added.
Tate plays an “Andrew Tate character” who says things for “entertainment,” not with the intention of being taken seriously, his lawyer said.
Asked on Times Radio on Wednesday about Tate’s comment that women bear responsibility for rape, Glandian stressed that much of what he has said has been “taken out of context.”
She referred to the “41 teachings of Tate” in which he speaks of “promoting loving consensual relationships with women.”
The US attorney, a partner at law firm Geragos & Geragos, went on to say she is not trying to recast Tate as a feminist, but her client’s controversial comments are not evidence in a criminal investigation.
“We don’t prosecute rap artists for saying things about… criminal activity,” she added.
