The White House intervened in a federal investigation of self-described misogynist and accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate and his brother when they visited Florida earlier this year after restrictions on their travel were lifted.
Customs and Border Patrol agents seized the electronic devices of Andrew and Tristan Tate when they arrived by private plane in Fort Lauderdale in February, ProPublica reported. But attorney Paul Ingrassia — who had represented the brothers previously and was at that time working as the White House liaison with the Department of Homeland Security — told the agency they should return the devices.
Ingrassia “chided” the agency for taking the devices, according to written notices reviewed by ProPublica, and told them seizing the devices was not a good use of their time and resources. He further said the request to return them came from the White House.
In a brief phone conversation, Ingrassia denied intervening and said that “nothing happened” before hanging up the phone.
Ingrassia, incidentally, was later nominated by President Donald J. Trump to head the Office of Special Counsel, but the nomination was withdrawn after an outcry over his self-professed “Nazi streak,” as Politico reported. Days later, he was appointed deputy general counsel of the General Services Administration, a post that did not require Senate approval.
Ingrassia also called for scrapping the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. as a national holiday in a group chat with Republican officials, saying it should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs” and calling King the “1960s George Floyd.”
The Tate brothers were under criminal investigation for sex trafficking in two countries when they came to Florida last February.
“The Tates will be free, Trump is the president. The good old days are back,” Tate posted on Twitter.com before the trip.
According to ProPublica, the intervention stirred alarm among career officials who worried it could interfere with a federal investigation, although it wasn’t clear why law enforcement wanted to examine the Tate’s devices. Both the White House and DHS declined comment.
The brothers’ attorney, Joseph McBride — whose firm employed Ingrassia before he was tapped by President Donald J. Trump for White House positions — told ProPublica that the devices weren’t returned and that his clients are innocent of any wrongdoing.
Ingrassia’s attorney, Edward Paltzik, told ProPublica that “Ingrassia never ordered that the Tate Brothers’ devices be returned to them, nor did he say — and nor would he have ever said — that such a directive came from the White House. This story is fiction, simply not true.”
When ProPublica queried whether Ingrassia had simply “asked” that the devices be returned, Paltzik became semantic.
“The word ‘ask’ is inappropriate because it is meaningless in this context,” he said. “He either ordered something or he didn’t. And as I said, he did NOT order anything.”
Customs and Border Protection acknowledged that they had seized the electronic devices and turned them over to Homeland Security Investigations when the Tates arrived in Florida.
The Tates left the United States in late March. Before leaving, Andrew Tate told conservative podcaster Candace Owens he was both “one of the most innocent people on the planet” and that he wipes his phone of any evidence against him “every night.”
“You think I’m dumb?” he said. “Come get me.”
The Tates moved to Romania shortly after Andrew Tate was kicked off the British version of “Big Brother” when a video of him whipping a woman with a belt emerged. He claimed it was a joke and said he moved to Romania partly because he believed authorities there investigated sex crimes less aggressively.
“I’m not a … rapist but I like the idea of being able to do what I want,” he said on Twitter.com.
But Romanian prosecutors in 2022 accused the brothers of trafficking women. Similar allegations then surfaced in Britain, where authorities have requested extradition, but Romanian prosecutors say they won’t send him there until their proceedings are completed.
In the United States, a woman sued the Tates in Florida, although most of her claims about sexual coercion were dismissed. The judge did tell her she could refile.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a state investigation into the brothers when they arrived in February, but the status of that investigation is unclear.
The Tates had been under house arrest in Romania until January, reportedly after US officials intervened and asked that the restrictions be lifted, the BBC reported.
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[Featured image: FILE – Andrew Tate gestures, next to his brother Tristan, outside the Bucharest Tribunal in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, January 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)]
