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Internet misogynist Andrew Tate has threatened to sue at least one of the women accusing him of sex trafficking.
U.S. lawyers for the woman said she received a cease and desist letter from the controversial influencer in December, threatening to sue her and her family for $300million (£249million) for defamation.
Andrew Tate, 36, alongside brother Tristan, 34, are currently in jail in Romania after being arrested in December while authorities investigate numerous claims of sex trafficking and rape.
Women who worked for the brothers and denied that they had been trafficked were brainwashed, a Romanian court found recently.
The brothers vehemently deny the claims and filed legal action against two women in Romania last April, as legal experts say they are ‘trying to intimidate witnesses.’
Andrew Tate, 36, alongside brother Tristan, 34, are currently in jail in Romania after being arrested in December (pictured attending court on February 1)
The brothers are accused of a number of crimes, including sex trafficking and rape, and are being held in preventative custody (pictured on February 1)
The BBC reported that the woman received a letter alleging that she had made ‘false and defamatory statements’ about the Tates.
‘In April 2022, you falsely stated to a third party that our Client [Andrew Tate] human trafficked you, abused you and held you against your will.
‘You have repeated false and defamatory statements to the police, the media, and another United States citizen about the Tate brothers.’
Benjamin Bull, a lawyer who works for the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation in the U.S. said his client is a key witness in the proceedings against the controversial figures.
He added that the letter was written to try and force the women coming forward into hiding.
‘They want these young ladies to climb into a hole and hide, never come forward [or] describe what they saw and what happened to them.
‘It’s clearly an effort to intimidate.’
Lawyers for the Tate brothers confirmed that the letter was genuine but deny intimidation.
Tina Glandian, an adviser for the imprisoned influencers, said it was not abnormal for the brothers to pursue legal claims for defamation.
The Tates appealed against an extension to their custody but lost and will remain in prison until at least February 27.
The brothers were arrested in a well-publicised raid on their £600,000 compound in Romania in late December.
They are being held in preventative custody while officials investigate the claims against them.
It is believed that the case rests on the testimony of six women, although no charges have yet been brought.
Despite victims of sexual abuse being granted anonymity, the names of the witnesses against the brothers have been shared online and in statements from the Tate brothers.
Lawyers for some of the women say they have faced enormous levels of online abuse from Tate supporters, including death threats.
Lawyer Tina Glandian, who represents the brothers, said it was normal for the brothers to pursue legal claims for defamation (pictured at a press conference on February 1)
Dani Pinter, who works alongside Benjamin Bull, said online videos were trying to ‘sl** shame’ women into not testifying.
‘Included in that is their private information – where they work, who their family members are – with the clear intention to incite harassment. And it’s working.’
Two women who claimed that they worked voluntarily for Andrew and Tristan Tate were ‘brainwashed’, a Romanian court decided.
A report prepared by a clinical psychologist said they were both left with trauma and did not recognise that they were being exploited.
The Romanian prosecutors considered the two women as victims of the Tate brothers despite their claim that they worked voluntarily for the two men.
The magistrates took the clinical psychologist’s report into account and ruled that they did not speak knowingly and had been brainwashed through their exploitation.
Andrew Tate (center) and Tristan Tate (rear right) are escorted by police officers outside the headquarters of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism in Bucharest (DIICOT) in December
It is alleged that the pair entrapped women and made them work in adult entertainment chat rooms.
An ex-girlfriend of Andrew Tate has revealed that he strangled her to the point of passing out during ‘rough sex’.
The woman, referred to as Sophie to protect her identity, said Tate slapped her and became violent during sex.
Sophie told the BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme that the pair met through Facebook and at first he charmed her. After talking for a while online she arranged to visit him at his home in Bucharest and soon became his girlfriend.
But she said he began to ask her about working for his webcam business, telling her she would ‘make a fortune’ if she did.
Despite saying no, Sophie said he would repeatedly say: ‘If you love me, you would do it,’ and this started to ‘chip away’ at her over time to think that ‘maybe he’s right’.
She said she felt coerced and worried that if she refused, she might lose him.
She said she made around £800 for six hours’ work, and Tate would take half of her earnings.
Sophie said over time, Tate became more controlling and would ‘fine’ her if she went out without his permission.
‘There was some disagreement… he held me up against the wall and he slapped me really hard and followed it with “you w***e”,’ she said.
She said he eventually became violent, enjoying rough sex, and would strangle her to the point where she once passed out.
She described him as ‘very manipulative’, adding: ‘He totally lacks any kind of empathy. He is a narcissist, he’s like that 100 per cent.
‘I don’t think he’s emotionally capable of feeling love, for anyone or anything, even his family, even his brother – there’s just nothing.’
But she added: ‘It’s very difficult because I don’t feel like a victim – all of the choices I made were of my [own] free will.
‘He didn’t bundle me up into a bag, throw me in the back of a lorry and drive me there.’
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