Tate brothers, accused of sex crimes in U.K., fight for bail in U.S. courtroom

MIAMI — Tristan Tate, the “manosphere” influencer accused of sex crimes in the United Kingdom, made a surprise appearance on the witness stand Thursday, telling a judge he’s not his outrageous online personality in real life.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis will decide whether the dual American and U.K. citizen brothers, Andrew and Tristan Tate, should be eligible for bail as they fight extradition across the Atlantic.

Tristian Tate told the court that his testimony is coming against the advice of his own defense attorneys.

“I am being held in a single room, I don’t believe that it’s been made clear enough why I need to be on bail,” Tristan Tate said.

The defendant compared he and his brother’s online personas to actor Sacha Baron Cohen, the famed British Jewish comic who best known playing antisemitic journalist Borat Sagdiyev.

“The reason Borat is such a hilarious comedic figure, it wouldn’t be the same if Sasha Baron Cohen was going around saying the same thing,” Tate said.

There’s no way, Tate said, he’d be able to tolerate their online persons in real life.

“Top G is a hilarious character,” Tate testified. “I couldn’t live with Top G, I couldn’t live with him in the special housing unit.”

He added: “I think I’d end up punching him in the face but thankfully he’s not a real man.”

The defendant said he spends his days locked in a 5-by-11 cell that has a bunk bed, a toilet and unwanted roommates.

“There are ants, there are roaches,” Tate said. “I have been subject to chemical attacks.”

His daily diet consists mostly of candy and chips, calling that: ”It’s death by scurvy instead of death by starvation.”

The brothers, shackled and wearing light-beige jail garb on Thursday, were taken into custody in Miami in July after prosecutors in the United Kingdom filed new charges against them. They are fighting extradition to that county.

Defense lawyer Howard Srebnick argued that his clients are not flight risks and have appeared “each and every time” for court dates in the U.K. and Romania.

Their confinement poses an undue burden on the defendants, Srebnick said, adding that Tristan Tate has a child with special needs who depends on him.

The pair have been unfairly cast as monsters for the internet “characters” they play, Srebnick said.

Andrew Tate’s social media personality as “Top G” uses “foul language, speaks in vulgarities, advocates positions that are in many ways outrageous,” the lawyer conceded.

But that internet personality “is not the real Andrew Tate — that is not the person Andrew Tate. That is the character,” Srebnick said.

In another surprising development of his bailing hearing, Andrew Tate’s girlfriend testified to his character.

Natasha Sesay said she’s known Andrew Tate for about 5 1/2 years and they have one child together who is 8 1/2 months old, with another one due in a month.

“It’s a very different character from the person you see online versus the one I know personally,” Sesay told the court. “He’s a great father to his children.”

Defense attorney Joe McBride has previously denied the allegations and said the brothers’ incarceration was the “result of an unholy alliance between the enemies of free speech in the United States and the United Kingdom.”

McBride told the court Thursday that his clients are “running to the fight,” calling them “two innocent men who have shown up” in multiple jurisdictions to “face the music” and to “go on the offense.”

“Innocent men don’t run. They lean into the process,” McBride added.

Prosecutors in the U.K. had argued against their release, saying in a filing earlier this month that their own statements suggest the brothers intended to evade justice.

The filing also alleged they may seek to interfere with witnesses and said the brothers repeatedly sought the names of their accusers from prosecutors in exchange for a “security” fee worth tens of thousands of pounds and a promise not to publicly identify the accusers.

The Crown Prosecution Service declined the offer in an effort to safeguard the complainants, the filing states.

McBride said the filing “drips falsehood from every page.”

A former professional kickboxer, Andrew Tate, 39, built a vast online following espousing misogynistic and hypermasculine views. He once told an interviewer that there was “no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist.”

U.K. prosecutors initially charged the Tates with 21 counts of rape, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and arranging or facilitating travel for sexual exploitation. Andrew Tate was also charged with controlling prostitution.

The additional charges filed last month against Andrew Tate include seven counts of rape, 15 counts of making or distributing indecent images of children and four counts of possession of extreme pornography.

Tristan Tate, 38, was charged with six additional counts of rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation charges.

U.K. authorities said the alleged crimes took place between 2010 and 2017.

The brothers also face criminal charges in Romania , where they reportedly moved in 2016 to build an online porn business and were later indicted on allegations of forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors and money laundering. They have denied the charges.

This is a developing story. Please check back here for updates.

Juliette Arcodia reported from Miami, Tim Stelloh from San Francisco and David K. Li from New York City.