Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan remain in custody in the United States and intend to oppose any move to extradite them to the United Kingdom, their lawyer said Monday after the pair appeared before a court.
The influencer brothers were arrested in Miami on Saturday in connection with pending allegations that include rape and sex trafficking.
Wearing tan jail uniforms and handcuffs, they attended a short hearing where their attorney, Joseph McBride, repeated his insistence that both men are innocent.
His comments followed claims he made shortly after Andrew was detained outside a bare-knuckle boxing event, alleging that Sir Keir Starmer was behind the effort to have the brothers extradited.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the pending charges accuse Andrew, 39, and Tristan, 37, of abusing women over a period spanning July 2010 to August 2017.
A US district judge is expected to determine in the coming weeks whether the brothers satisfy the legal requirements for extradition. Another hearing has been scheduled for July 27.
Speaking outside the Florida court, McBride said: “We are of course objecting to extradition because Andrew and Tristan are innocent.
“They’ve never done anything wrong. They shouldn’t be extradited for crimes they did not commit.”
Andrew Tate (right) and his brother Tristan (left) are being kept behind bars in the US after their arrest in Miami on Saturday
Their lawyer Joseph McBride spoke to reporters on Monday after the brothers appeared in court
The brothers were surprised when they were arrested, McBride said before adding that the attempt to have them extradited was politically motivated. ‘There’s no question about it,’ he told reporters.
He suggested the Tates’ case ‘had a lot to do with’ Starmer’s decision to step down, though did not back up that claim with evidence.
In an attack on Britain, the lawyer continued: ‘We’ve never seen a scintilla of evidence that indicates that these guys are guilty of anything. They’re being punished and attacked for what they say, not what they’ve done.
‘You can love them, you can hate them, but nobody should go to jail for free speech, and that is exactly what this is about.
‘Make no mistake about it, the United Kingdom was once the greatest empire the world has ever known. It is a fallen nation. It is a fallen state that prosecutes its citizens for free speech.’
McBride also argued that it was ‘no coincidence’ that the controversial brothers were arrested after meeting ‘friends in Washington’.
The Daily Mail revealed earlier on Monday that Andrew and Tristan were handcuffed just days after they met with Texan Republican Representative Wesley Hunt in his congressional office in Washington.
They also attended a party hosted by President Donald Trump’s special envoy Paolo Zampolli that was held in a private capacity and not related to Zampolli’s official duties.
‘We went to see our Congress people in D.C. and now we’re getting arrested. This feels political,’ McBride said, though he didn’t specify who the pair met with or what was discussed.
Prosecutors at the CPS said that the new charges against the Tates relate to four new victims and were brought after authorities received evidence from Bedfordshire Police in southeastern England.
Andrew faces seven further counts of rape, three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and 19 additional charges for offences relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.
Tristan is being charged with one count of sexual assault, two counts of rape and three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Both Andrew and Tristan have strongly denied any wrongdoing.
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McBride had claimed earlier this week that Trump will support Andrew and Tristan, and reiterated that point today. He said: ‘He was elected to fight against this sort of nonsense’.
The brothers are facing a combined 59 new charges
Andrew and Tristan ‘remain positive’ about the case, according to their lawyer, who added that he expects legal proceedings to last around 60 days.
The hearing came after a clip emerged of Andrew and Tristan’s arrest, which came just moments before the older brother was set to host a boxing event.
Wearing an unbuttoned purple shirt, silver chains, sunglasses and cropped jeans, Andrew was handcuffed by US Marshals outside the James L Knight Center on Saturday afternoon.
But footage appeared to show the social media influencer grab his phone and pass it toward a security guard moments before he was detained.
The phone eventually fell to the floor, before a law enforcement officer retrieved it. It is, however, unclear whether US Marshals took possession of the device.
After the arrest, a Department of Justice spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘Today, US Marshals in the Southern District of Florida arrested Andrew and Tristan Tate pursuant to extradition proceedings.
‘These arrests were made in accordance with the treaties and law enforcement agreements governing Justice Department extraditions.’
The Tates are dual US and British citizens who moved to Romania in 2016.
The former professional kickboxers have amassed a following of fans, particularly young men and boys, by professing a lifestyle of luxury and unapologetic misogyny.
Andrew and Tristan were first arrested in Romania in December 2022 and charged in June 2023 with human trafficking and forming an organized crime group to sexually exploit women. Andrew was additionally charged with rape.
The brothers deny all the charges they face worldwide.
McBride claimed earlier this week that President Donald Trump will support Andrew and Tristan following their arrest
Romanian prosecutors in August 2024 expanded the case against them to include money laundering, witness intimidation and complicity in the trafficking of minors.
British prosecutors filed their own charges against the brothers in May 2025, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.
Romanian courts ruled the pair would be extradited to the UK once proceedings in Romania conclude.
The Bucharest court of appeals ruled against sending the Tates to trial in 2024 and sent the case back to prosecutors after removing several pieces of evidence that were ‘deemed inadmissible ‘, including initial testimonies from their alleged victims from the file.
Prosecutors are still investigating the first case, but in 2024 they began a second criminal investigation against the Tates and four other suspects on suspicion of forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.
The Tates flew from Romania to Florida in February 2025 after authorities lifted their travel ban, a reversal that followed reported pressure from Trump administration figures. Trump told reporters he knew ‘nothing about it.’
ProPublica later reported that a White House official intervened to have federal agents return electronic devices seized from the brothers when they landed in Florida.
Andrew has amassed over 10 million followers on X but has been banned from platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for violating hate speech guidelines.
His most widely condemned rhetoric includes comments that women who are sexually assaulted should bear some responsibility for their attacks, graphic descriptions of how he might attack women and criticisms of people who seek treatment for mental illness.
