by Andrew Tate enlisted the support of two right-wing politicians from his prison cell in Romania to help fight allegations of rape and human trafficking, wiretapping claims.
Transcripts of the phone calls were submitted to the court by Romanian prosecutors and claim that Tate tried to recruit Romanian politicians George Simion, president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, and Diana Iovanovici-Sosoaca, a prominent critic of the Covid restrictions, to support him .
Tate apparently instructed two associates to tell Simion and Ms. Iovanovici-Sosoaca that his support would be “very good for their careers,” according to a transcript.
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Police escort Andrew Tate, center, in handcuffs to his brother Tristan Tate, at the Court of Appeal in Bucharest
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“So make it clear to them: You’re going to get a lot of votes when Tate says you took their side,” Tate said in the Jan. 28 call, according to documents.
The calls were made between January 28 and 31, according to prosecutors, about a month after Tate was taken into custody.
Mr Simion denied being contacted by Tate and told Reuters he would not publicly endorse the social media influencer if asked.
While a spokesman for Senator Iovanovici-Sosoaca said the intercepted conversations were “lies” designed to attack her.
Tates’ attorney and prosecutors have not commented on the matter.
A recorded phone call shows Tate telling an associate to post “party footage” on social media, which he said showed at least one of his alleged victims dancing in Bucharest.
“Yeah, put them all over the place and say, ‘This girl says she was kidnapped when she wasn’t,'” Tate said, according to the exchanges.
“You’re saying you want me to discredit them, get social media, yeah?” asks the associate. “Yeah, screw them,” Tate replies.
The transcripts appear in Romanian in the court document and were back-translated into English by Reuters.
Tate, 36, was accused along with his brother Tristan Tate, 34, of recruiting women and subjecting them to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion”, which both men deny.
The two brothers have been held in Romania since December 2022. A Romanian court this week rejected Andrew Tate’s appeal against his continued detention, ruling that he should remain in custody until March 29.
