US Marshals arrested Andrew and Tristan Tate in Miami on Saturday on a UK extradition request following new charges from British prosecutors alleging rape and sex trafficking. Whether they’re sent to the UK will ultimately come down to one person: Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The new charges
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service put the total at 42 charges against Andrew Tate, 39, a count built from seven rape charges, three counts tied to facilitating sex trafficking, three assault charges, and 19 charges covering indecent images of a child and extreme pornography. Tristan Tate, 38, faces 17 charges, split between two rape counts, three trafficking-facilitation counts, and a single sexual assault charge.
Bedfordshire Police tied the charges to alleged offenses against women in the East of England, north of London, between 2010 and 2017. New evidence brought the total number of alleged victims to seven, the CPS said.
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US Marshals confirmed the arrests came under a sealed warrant. A DOJ spokesperson said they were made “in accordance with the treaties and law enforcement agreements governing Justice Department extraditions.”
The brothers were expected before a Miami magistrate judge Monday. Their attorney, Joseph McBride, said they’ll contest the extradition request; bail is unlikely given the case’s international scope.
What happens next
A US district judge decides first, over hearings that could stretch months, whether the brothers meet the legal conditions for extradition. McBride has signaled they’ll fight it at every stage, citing their American citizenship and the still-active Romanian cases.
If a judge clears extradition, the decision moves to Rubio. The State Department can still deny a UK request after judicial approval, though it’s granted nearly every one since the 2007 US-UK extradition treaty. The one significant refusal came during Trump’s first term, when Washington shielded the wife of a former US diplomat from extradition over a deadly UK road crash by invoking her diplomatic immunity — a precedent with little bearing here, since neither brother can claim similar immunity.
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Romania’s own cases against the brothers remain open, too. Bucharest prosecutors brought two indictments, one in 2023 and a follow-up in 2024, covering trafficking, sexual abuse, money laundering, and running an organized criminal operation. Legal observers expect Romania’s proceedings, filed first, to take priority over any UK transfer.
McBride has argued that a standing UK-Romania agreement bars British extradition while the Romanian case is pending.
The Trump administration’s earlier role
The Financial Times reported in February 2025 that Trump administration officials pressed Romania to lift the brothers’ travel restrictions, including a direct call between US and Romanian officials and a follow-up from special envoy Richard Grenell to Romania’s foreign minister at the Munich Security Conference.
Days later, Romanian prosecutors reversed a prior court finding that such a request was unfounded and lifted the travel ban; the brothers flew to Florida on a private jet.
“They feel secure in America for several reasons, the primary one being that Donald Trump is the president,” McBride said. “As a result, they are excited to call America their home again.”
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Romania denied yielding to US pressure. Trump told the Oval Office press pool at the time that he knew “nothing about it.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin pressed Rubio on the episode in an April 2025 letter, questioning the outreach to Romania and noting that Andrew Tate’s girlfriend filed a police report alleging assault in Los Angeles less than two weeks after the brothers returned.
Rubio has not commented publicly on the Tate case since Saturday’s arrest.
