Andrew and Tristan Tate’s lawyers are complaining the Romanian court that indicted the brothers on human trafficking charges is sending information about their criminal case to “random podcasters and online figures,” according to a new filing in a civil lawsuit in a Florida court.
The gripe came as part of a filing yesterday where lawyers for the brothers argued against a motion by defendants in a lawsuit who wish to stay anonymous.
The suit was filed in July and names its defendants as part of a willful plot to defame the brothers, causing them at least $5 million in damages. The alleged defamation stems from the role of the defendants in the Romanian criminal case against the brothers, which saw them arrested in December 2022.
In a filing last week, the defendants claimed that they needed to be able to proceed pseudonymously because of the intimate nature of the case and threats they say have been made to their safety and privacy.
The defendants also asked the court to seal all records discussing their sexual histories, claiming that information in the complaint filed by the Tate brothers described sexual abuse one of the defendants had undergone as a minor. They said that their names being filed publicly resulted in emotional injury, a violation of substantial privacy rights, and resulted in threats to their safety.
Tate’s lawyers are now saying that the defendants’ motion should be rejected because one of the defendants is trying to “hijack the justice system” to hide her “wrongdoings and nefarious conduct under a false name.”
Granting the defendant pseudonymity, Tate’s lawyers said, would give her “one more in a long list of aliases that she would use to hide her outrageous conduct.”
Tate’s lawyers attached a screenshot of a tweet by @CrayonMurders, who documents the charges against the Tates on X, to bolster their claim that the Romanian government is handing out information to “random … online figures.”
The Tate brothers recently filed a raft of documents containing information about the defendants, two of whom are accusers in the criminal case against them. The filing by the Tate’s lawyers included a copy of the victim statement given to the Romanian Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT). In the statement, one of the defendants in the current Florida civil lawsuit describes their alleged abuse at the hands of Tristan Tate, including non-consensual strangulation during sex which she said left her with bruising on her neck.
Lawyers for the Tate brothers didn’t respond to a request for comment about what other random podcasters or online personalities the Romanian court is giving information to.
