A judge has ruled that social media personality and former kickboxer Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, can proceed with a defamation lawsuit against an unidentified Florida woman who accused them of imprisoning her in Romania.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Joseph Curley ruled that the attorneys for the Tate brothers had shown enough evidence to proceed on allegations that the Florida woman enlisted another person in a 2022 plot to extort money from them.
The Tates allege that the Florida woman falsely accused them of rape and human trafficking, which cost them their freedom and millions of dollars in income. Romanian officials charged the Tate brothers last year, along with two Romanian citizens, with alleged human trafficking, rape, and forming a criminal gang to exploit women.
Initially, they were held for three months in police detention. That was later downgraded to house arrest and they have since been permitted to travel freely around Romania. No trial date has been set yet and the brothers deny all allegations.
Judge Curley cited several texts as reasons for his ruling, including an April 2022 message in which the woman and a friend allegedly said they would ask the brothers for $200,000 and “act like we still love them and stuff.”
According to Judge Curley, parts of the lawsuit, such as accusing the woman of false imprisonment for the Tates’ being arrested, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and interfering with their business relationships, can’t proceed, though there is an option for those accusations to be amended or refiled.
Attorneys acting on behalf of the unidentified Florida woman claim that the lawsuit is retribution for reporting the Tates to authorities. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law, which is representing the Tates’ accuser, called Judge Curley’s ruling a “huge victory.”
“We are very pleased the Court has tossed out the majority of this frivolous lawsuit and wisely narrowed the issues and claims,” attorney Dani Pinter said.
“If the case proceeds, we look forward to the opportunity to prove the truth of what occurred in Romania, and we are confident that ultimately we will succeed and this harassing lawsuit will fail.”
The Tates’ attorney, Joseph McBride, said they are “most pleased with Judge Curley’s ruling” as the defamation accusation directly addresses the “plot to destroy Andrew and Tristan Tate’s lives.”
Mr. McBride said a decision was still pending on whether they would amend and refile the dismissed accusations.
