Andrew Tate, the online influencer accused of rape and human trafficking, has been accused of directing a “scorched earth” campaign of intimidation and harassment against his alleged victims and critics, according to claims in a lawsuit seen by The Times.
Tate, 38, and his younger brother Tristan, 36, have filed civil defamation claims in Palm Beach circuit court, Florida, against one of their alleged victims and her parents, and against citizen journalists and prominent social media users who have posted negatively about the Tates. The lawsuit claims that the brothers have tried to “silence” their accusers, including by hiring private investigators and internet sleuths to gather intelligence to use against them.
According to the lawsuit, Andrew Tate made calls from prison in Romania “instructing his cousin and other associates to create videos smearing Jane Doe and Mary Doe”. The brothers were arrested and jailed in Bucharest in late 2022, where they were held for three months on trafficking charges before being let out on house arrest. They are accused of luring Jane Doe, an American, from Florida to Bucharest earlier in 2022 to work in their online pornography business. Mary Doe is a Romanian-Moldovan who alleges she was also trafficked and coerced into sex work.
The lawsuit claims that Andrew Tate instructed his associates to create “highly salacious, humiliating and defamatory” videos about Jane Doe and Mary Doe, which were shared and viewed thousands of times online. The videos were allegedly part of a campaign to “undermine her credibility as a witness” against him in the Romanian criminal prosecution. The Times has been informed that the videos were a key part of the brothers’ strategy to intimidate and harass their alleged victims.
The brothers are also accused of sending people to Jane Doe’s parents’ house in Florida to take pictures of their home to “harass and intimidate them”. They allegedly paid an associate, Sulaiman Ahmed, a British online influencer with more than 600,000 followers on X, to interview a “former suitor” of Jane Doe’s who statutorily raped her when she was 17. This man is said to have gained access to Doe’s mobile phone without her permission and “shared the private information with Ahmed, who is alleged to have shared it with the Tates”, according to Jane Doe’s lawyers.
Andrew Tate is also accused of paying Ryan Dawson, another online influencer, to fly from his home in South Korea to the US to further “investigate” Jane Doe. The lawsuit claims that Dawson made defamatory and harassing posts about Jane Doe on X, formerly Twitter, at the direction and for the benefit of the Tate Brothers. Dawson has denied that he was paid by the Tates, telling The Times that “neither Andrew Tate or Tristan Tate have ever paid me to do anything”.
The lawsuit claims that the brothers have lodged what amounts to a Slapp (strategic lawsuit against public participation), or “frivolous lawsuit to discredit, intimidate, humiliate and embarrass” anyone who speaks out against them. The Tates’ “scorched-earth litigation strategy” would be regarded as “odious and utterly intolerable in a civilised community”, according to Jane Doe’s lawyers.
Another accuser, Brianna Stern, an ex-girlfriend of Andrew Tate’s who filed a lawsuit against him in Los Angeles in March for sexual assault, claimed to be so afraid of what his supporters and associates might do that she hired a bodyguard and went into hiding. The Tate brothers are facing criminal and civil action in Romania, the UK and the US. Bedfordshire police obtained a warrant for their arrest over allegations of rape and human trafficking.
The Tates deny all the allegations and are asking the Palm Beach civil court for $5 million in emotional damage they say was caused by slanderous statements. Thomas Maniotis, their lawyer in the US, called Jane Doe a “con artist” who “engages in romance scams”. It was reported last week that the brothers would be handed to the UK authorities after the conclusion of criminal proceedings in eastern Europe.
Andrew Tate has maintained that he is a victim of “the Matrix”, a cabal of people including the accusers’ lawyers and social media users named in the lawsuit, whom he believes are working against him. Maniotis alleges in the lawsuit that “Team Matrix” took part in a “concerted effort [to] terrorise and threaten almost anyone coming to the defence of, or that support, the Tate brothers”.
The Tates’ “use of social media is a distinguishing factor in their success”, according to Maniotis. “Unfortunately, their following, previously amassed across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, was wiped out due to the spurious false accusations underpinning the allegations in this complaint.” In a 2022 interview with The Unplugged Alpha podcast, which is quoted in the lawsuit, Andrew Tate said of his litigation strategy: “I don’t need a reason. I don’t care if it costs me a million dollars to take a thousand dollars out of your bank, you’re going to be in court twice a month for the rest of your human years.”
One of the defendants in the Palm Beach suits, a citizen journalist who posts news and updates on the Tates’ case on X under the handle CrayonMurders, addressed the case on the social media platform this week. “We shared the truth. We shared opinions,” he wrote while announcing a fundraiser to cover legal costs. “If they win, it won’t stop here. It sets a dangerous precedent for free speech, journalism and every person who uses their voice to speak the truth. They want to scare people into silence.” The Times has been informed that this case has significant implications for free speech and the use of social media in the pursuit of justice.
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