Andrew Tate sought the backing of two right-wing politicians from his prison cell in Romania to help fight rape and trafficking allegations, wiretaps of phone calls have claimed.
Transcripts of the phone calls were submitted to 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 Covid restrictions, to back him.
Tate apparently instructed two associates to tell Mr Simion and Ms Iovanovici-Sosoaca that supporting him would be “very good for their careers”, according to one transcript.
“So make it clear to them: You will get a lot of votes when Tate says you took their side,” Tate said in the call on January 28, according to documents.
The calls were made between January 28-31, according to prosecutors, about a month after Tate was detained.
Mr Simion denied Tate contacted him and told Reuters that he would not publicly support the social media influencer if he was asked to.
While a spokesperson for Senator Iovanovici-Sosoaca said the wiretapped conversations were “lies” designed to attack her.
Tates’ lawyer and prosecutors have not commented on the matter.
One call transcript shows Tate telling an associate to release “party clips” on social media that he said showed at least one of his alleged trafficking victims dancing in Bucharest.
“Yes, put them everywhere and say, ‘This girl says she is kidnapped when she is not kidnapped’,” Tate said according to the exchanges.
“You’re saying you want me to discredit them, have social media pull hard, yes?” the associate asks. “Yes, screw them,” Tate replies.
The transcripts appear in Romanian in the court document and were translated back into English by Reuters.
Tate, 36, was accused alongside his brother Tristan Tate, 34, of recruiting women and subjecting them to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion”, allegations both men deny.
The two brothers have been detained in Romania since December 2022. A Romanian court this week rejected an appeal by Andrew Tate against the continuation of his detention, ruling he should remain in custody until 29 March.
