Influencer Andrew Tate Wants To Recruit Politicians To His Cause: Wiretaps

Bucharest:

Andrew Tate has sought to fight rape and trafficking charges while in police custody, instructing aides to recruit two right-wing lawmakers, according to wiretaps of his phone calls submitted to a court by Romanian prosecutors.

The internet celebrity directed two colleagues to tell Romanian politicians, George Simian and Diana Iovanovici-Sosaka, that they were being framed and that backing them would be “very good for their careers”, according to one of the exchanges.

The former kickboxer said in a January 28 call to two of his aides, “So let’s make it clear: When Tate says you’ve taken his side, you’re going to get a lot of votes.”

Transcripts of the wiretapped calls are included in a previously unpublished court document dated February 21 compiled by Bucharest court officials and reviewed by Reuters.

Mr. Simian, a politician in Romania’s lower house, told Reuters he had never been approached by Tate or his allies, and that he would not publicly support Tate if asked.

Asked whether he believed Tate had been framed, he replied: “The justice system will decide, not politicians.”

A spokesman for Iovanovici-Sosaka, a senator, said the wiretapped conversations were “lies” designed to attack him.

The wiretapped calls were made between January 28 and January 31, about a month after Tate, 36, was taken into custody along with her 34-year-old brother Tristan on suspicion of rape, human trafficking and forming an organized crime group, according to prosecutors Were. ,

The brothers have denied all allegations. Reuters was unable to reach him in police custody for comment.

When contacted about the wiretapped calls, Tates’ attorney Eugen Wiedneck and a spokesman for prosecutors both declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

Reuters could not independently verify the identities of the people in the wiretapped calls, or determine whether any lobbying of politicians took place. The news organization translated the exchanges – which appear in the court document in Romanian – back into English, the language used by Tate, meaning that, while accurate, they may not match his original words Are.

British-American Tate, who has been primarily based in Romania since 2017, is an online influencer and self-described anti-feminist who has built up millions of fans, especially among young men who are drawn to her hyper-macho image. are ready for.

The wiretapped calls offer a window into his multi-pronged efforts to defend himself while in custody, efforts that extend beyond the courtroom into the realms of politics and social media.

‘screw them’

Also in a January 28 call, detailed in the court document, Tate directed his aide Luke to release “party clips” on social media, which he said showed at least one of his alleged trafficking victims dancing in Bucharest. is shown.

“Yeah, put them everywhere and say, ‘This girl says she was kidnapped when she wasn’t’,” Tate says.

“You’re saying you want me to discredit them, has social media worked hard, yes?” asks Luke.

“Yeah, screw them,” Tate replies.

The court document records minutes of a Bucharest court hearing on 21 February, when a judge extended Tet’s detention until the end of March, as well as evidence presented by prosecutors, who alleged that the brothers had organized a had run a human-trafficking campaign that focused on making online pornography.

Alexandru Risnita, another lawyer for the Tates, dismissed suggestions that the brothers were a flight risk if released from custody as the investigation progresses, the minutes show. He added that it would be very difficult for his clients to travel unnoticed as they were “the most famous people on the planet at the moment”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)