RAW: Andrew Tate speaks with reporters after arriving in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 27, 2025.
Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are accused of serious sex crimes, arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday from Romania.
Now the question is: Why are they here?
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WATCH HEREThe Tates — who are dual U.S.-British citizens — were arrested in late 2022 and formally indicted last year on charges they participated in a criminal ring that lured women to Romania, where they were sexually exploited. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. They deny the allegations.
The brothers landed midday after authorities lifted travel restrictions.
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"We live in a democratic society where it's innocent until proven guilty, and I think my brother and I are largely misunderstood," Andrew Tate told reporters as he walked out of the airport. "There's a lot of opinions about us, a lot of things that go around about us on the internet."
This Florida trip was a sudden departure as the pair were being held in Romania since their arrest in 2022.
Even though there’s speculation that the Trump Administration intervened, it’s unclear who asked Romanian prosecutors to lift their travel ban. Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors approved a request to change the travel restrictions on the Tates, but it did not say who made the request.
"We've yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives ever, we have no criminal record anywhere on the planet ever, our case was dismissed on the 19th of December in Romania under the Biden administration, and our prosecutor recently decided because we have no active indictment in court to let us go and return," Andrew Tate told reporters.
This is a democratic society, it's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty as my brother and I are, and I think it's extremely important that we stop allowing media spin, black ops smears, lies, or carefully constructed narratives from George Soros-funded operations trying to destroy the reputations of good people who have no intention to do anything other than follow the law," he said.
At a news conference Thursday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he had no involvement in the Tate brothers' surprise arrival.
“The reality is, no, Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct," DeSantis said. "I don’t know how it came to this. We were not involved. We were not notified."
The brothers are still required to appear before judicial authorities when summoned.
“The defendants have been warned that deliberately violating these obligations may result in judicial control being replaced with a stricter deprivation-of-liberty measure,” the statement said.
After the brothers arrived in Florida, state Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a social media post that his office would conduct a “preliminary inquiry” into them.
“Florida has zero tolerance for human trafficking and violence against women. If any of these alleged crimes trigger Florida jurisdiction, we will hold them accountable,” said Uthmeier, an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
