By Luc Cohen
MIAMI, Aug 27 (Reuters) - A romantic partner of Andrew Tate testified on Thursday on behalf of the social media influencer as he and his brother Tristan Tate seek release on bail from a Miami jail as they contest extradition to Britain, where they are wanted on rape charges.
Natasha Sesay, who said she had been in a romantic relationship with Andrew Tate for 5-1/2 years, was questioned by defense lawyer Stephen Binhak as part of the Tate brothers' effort to persuade Miami-based U.S. Magistrate
Judge Lauren Louis that they would not pose a danger to the community if released.
The former kickboxers have built a large online following promoting their views on masculinity and wealth. Andrew Tate has previously described himself as a misogynist.
Sesay, who said she shared an 8-month-old child with Andrew Tate and was expecting their second child next month, said his sometimes provocative comments online did not reflect who he truly was.
"It’s a very different character between the person that you see online and the person I know," Sesay said.
Andrew Tate, 39, and Tristan Tate, 38, looked back and forth between Binhak and Sesay during her testimony. They were seated at the defense table shackled at the feet, wearing beige prison garb and sporting beards to their hearing.
The Tate brothers were arrested in Miami on July 18 after Britain requested their extradition to face charges of rape, assault and facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation. The Tate brothers, who have dual U.S. and British citizenship, have denied any wrongdoing.
The arrests marked a new phase in their legal troubles. The Tates recruited dozens of women to work for a webcam pornography business starting in 2014, and later ran online courses called "Hustler's University," prosecutors with the Miami U.S. Attorney's office said in an August 10 court filing.
DEFENSE ARGUES AGAINST DETENTION
The prosecutors said in court filings there was a strong presumption in favor of detention in international extradition cases. They said the Tates could pose a danger to the community if released, citing British authorities' allegations that they strangled victims during forcible rapes, and that they could try to flee.
The prosecutors also pointed to allegations by authorities in Romania, where the brothers face human trafficking charges, that they sought to influence witnesses' statements while released on judicial supervision there. Romanian authorities say the Tates threatened to release private information about alleged victims and bribed an alleged victim, the U.S. prosecutors said.
Howard Srebnick, another lawyer for the Tates, said that they had regularly appeared in court in Romania, where they are on pretrial release, which he said was evidence they were not a flight risk.
"The brothers have been fully compliant with their conditions of release," Srebnick said.
Thomas Maniotis, defense lawyer, said the witnesses the Tates were alleged to have bribed were women who wanted to speak on their behalf, and said the Tates helped coordinate their travel to Bucharest and hired lawyers for them.
The defense lawyers proposed that Louis release them on the conditions they post bond, surrender their passports and submit to location monitoring.
BRITISH CHARGES SPAN SEVEN YEARS
The legal process for determining whether the Tate brothers may be extradited could take months. Britain has until September 16 to submit its full extradition request to the State Department, U.S. court records show.
The impetus for the brothers' arrests in Miami was new charges brought by Britain's Crown Prosecution Service relating to alleged offenses involving four alleged victims between July 2010 and August 2017.
They had previously faced rape and human trafficking charges in Britain related to three alleged victims, the CPS said. A British judge issued a warrant for their arrests in 2024. They have not appeared in British court to enter a plea to those charges.
Britain is seeking to extradite the brothers to face both sets of charges.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in MiamiEditing by Rod Nickel and Nick Zieminski)
