By Luc Cohen
MIAMI, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will remain in a Miami jail for now as they contest extradition to Britain, where they are wanted on rape charges.
At a hearing in Miami federal court on Thursday, Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis declined to rule immediately on the Tate brothers' request for bail, meaning they will remain in federal custody until she issues her ruling.
The Tates were led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and shackled at the feet by U.S. marshals.
The brothers were arrested in Miami on July 18 after Britain requested their extradition. The Tate brothers, who have dual U.S. and British citizenship, have denied any wrongdoing.
The former kickboxers have built a large online following promoting their views on masculinity and wealth. Andrew Tate, 39, has previously described himself as a misogynist.
The Tate brothers were seeking to preempt federal prosecutors' argument that they should remain detained as they contest extradition to Britain, where they face charges of rape, assault and facilitating trafficking, because they would pose a danger to the community if released. After the Tates testified, prosecutor Abbie Waxman showed the court a video of Andrew Tate saying, “slap, slap, grab, choke, shut up bitch, sex.”
"They promote incredible violence against women," Waxman said. "It is not a character, it is who they are."
The Tates recruited dozens of women to work for a webcam pornography business starting in 2014, and later ran online courses called "Hustler's University," prosecutors with the Miami U.S. Attorney's office said in an August 10 court filing.
On the witness stand on Thursday, Andrew Tate said he stopped saying "stupid things" on the internet when he was first arrested in Romania about five years ago. The brothers face human trafficking charges in Romania.
"Top G is a caricature," he said, referring to an online moniker that he called a "hyperbolic character."
"I do this to shake men out of apathy," he said.
Tristan Tate, 38, testified he and his brother played characters online to help their posts gain traction.
"It’s his flamboyant, outlandish, sometimes crude comedy that makes him go viral," Tristan Tate testified, referring to his brother. "He’s the only person in the world who is judged by a character that he plays."
ANDREW TATE'S ROMANTIC PARTNER TESTIFIES
At the hearing, the brothers were shackled at the feet, wore beige prison garb and sported beards.
The Tates' defense lawyers proposed that Louis release them on the conditions they post bond, surrender their passports and submit to location monitoring.
Earlier on Thursday, the mother of one of Andrew Tate's children, Natasha Sesay, said his sometimes provocative comments online did not reflect who he truly was.
"It’s a very different character between the person that you see online and the person I know," said Sesay, who is expecting another one of Andrew Tate's children next month.
On cross-examination by federal prosecutor Abbie Waxman, Sesay acknowledged that Andrew Tate paid for her home in Dubai as well as luxury bags, shoes and jewelry.
BRITISH CHARGES SPAN SEVEN YEARS
The legal process for determining whether the Tate brothers may be extradited could take months. Britain has until September 16 to submit its full extradition request to the State Department, U.S. court records show.
The impetus for the brothers' arrests in Miami was new charges brought by Britain's Crown Prosecution Service relating to alleged offenses involving four alleged victims between July 2010 and August 2017.
They had previously faced rape and human trafficking charges in Britain related to three alleged victims, the CPS said. A British judge issued a warrant for their arrests in 2024. They have not appeared in British court to enter a plea to those charges.
Britain is seeking to extradite the brothers to face both sets of charges.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in MiamiEditing by Noeleen Walder, Rod Nickel and Nick Zieminski)
