Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, are not welcome in the state, shortly after they left Romania and landed in Fort Lauderdale after their travel ban was lifted.
The Tate Brothers, facing human trafficking charges in Romania, took a private jet from Băneasa airport in Bucharest for Florida early Thursday morning.
An official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the case, said the decision for the brothers, who are dual U.S.-British citizens, to head back to the U.S. was at the discretion of prosecutors.
The Tate brothers remain under criminal investigation for trafficking of minors, sex with a minor and money laundering. Andrew also faces an additional charge of rape. They have both denied any wrongdoing.
DeSantis said that his government had “no involvement” in the Tate brothers’ travel to the U.S. and he found out about their return after reading about it “in the media.”
“Clearly the federal government has jurisdiction. Whether they want to rebuff his entry into the United States, I have confidence that, whether it’s Pam Bondi or Kristi Noem, they will be looking at that,” DeSantis said during a press conference.
He said that Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, is “looking at what state hooks and jurisdiction we may have to be able to deal with this.”
“But the reality is, is no, Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct in the air,” DeSantis added.
“And I don’t know how it came to this. We were not involved.”
In a statement on X, Uthmeier said he has directed his office “to work with our state law enforcement partners to conduct a preliminary inquiry into these individuals.”
“Florida has zero tolerance for human trafficking and violence against women,” Uthmeier wrote. “If any of these alleged crimes trigger Florida jurisdiction, we will hold them accountable.”
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Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors approved a “request to modify the obligation preventing the defendants from leaving Romania” but that judicial control measures remained in place. The agency didn’t say who had made the request.
“These include the requirement to appear before judicial authorities whenever summoned,” the statement read. “The defendants have been warned that deliberately violating these obligations may result in judicial control being replaced with a stricter deprivation of liberty measure.”
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Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Trump’s administration had expressed interest in the brothers’ legal case in Romania at the Munich Security Conference.
When asked about the Tates’ travels on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trumptold reporters in the Oval Office, “I just know nothing about it. We’ll check it out. We’ll let you know.”
After landing on Thursday, Tate briefly spoke to reporters at the airport, saying, “We live in a democratic society where it’s innocent until proven guilty, and I think my brother and I are largely misunderstood.”
“There’s a lot of opinions about us that go around on the internet. We’ve yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives ever. We have no criminal record anywhere on the planet,” he added.
Joseph McBride, a lawyer for the Tate brothers, responded to DeSantis’ remarks on X, writing, “Andrew & Tristan Tate are American Citizens. They are also the Plaintiffs and victims in a very public defamation lawsuit litigated in Palm Beach Court.”
“Trump-hating @RonDeSantis has disgraced himself by stating that @Cobratate & @TateTheTalisman are not welcome in Florida,” McBride added.
“Andrew and Tristan plan to return to Romania at the end of March to meet with the prosecutor before returning to the United States,” McBride said in a separate statement. “They feel secure in America for several reasons, the primary one being that Donald Trump is the President. As a result, they are excited to call America their home again.”
He went on to add that those “who continue to slander, defame, and conspire to bring false charges against Andrew and Tristan” will be “brought to justice.”
Andrew, 38, and Tristan, 36, were arrested near Romania’s capital in late 2022, along with two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last year. In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that a trial could start but didn’t set a date. All four deny the allegations.
Andrew Tate, a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist who has amassed more than 10 million followers on X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.
The Tate brothers are expected to return to Romania in less than a month for their next court appearance on March 24.
— With files from The Associated Press