No pressure from US over Andrew Tate, says Romanian minister
Andrew Tate and his brother are banned from leaving Romania pending a criminal investigation
Romania's foreign minister has denied facing pressure from a US envoy to lift travel restrictions on Andrew Tate, a social media influencer facing human trafficking charges in Romania.
This follows a report in the Financial Times alleging US officials raised Tate's case with the Romanian government, including foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu.
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, who hold dual US and British citizenship, are currently under investigation in Romania for alleged involvement in organised crime, human trafficking, and sexual offences, including intercourse with a minor and money laundering. They deny all accusations.
According to the FT's sources, a request was made during these discussions to return the brothers' passports and permit them to travel while awaiting the conclusion of court proceedings.
However, Hurezeanu insists he was not pressured by Grenell during their conversation at the Munich Security Conference.
Tate, the highest profile suspect facing trial for human trafficking in Romania, was banned from almost all social media platforms before Trump's now adviser Elon Musk took over X and reinstated his account.
Hurezeanu told Euronews late on Tuesday he had had an informal chat with Grenell in a hallway during the Munich conference. Hurezeanu cited Grenell as saying he remained interested in the fate of the Tate brothers.
"I did not perceive this statement as pressure, just a repeat of a known stance," Hurezeanu said.
"I don't know what pressures of another nature were made before or after but what I discussed with Mr Grenell was cordial, informal, brief, non-binding and I certainly did not detect any form of pressure."
A first criminal case against Tate and his brother failed in December when a Bucharest court decided not to start the trial, citing flaws in the indictment.
A Romanian court lifted a house arrest order against Tate in January, replacing it with a lighter preventative measure. In October, a court ruled he should get back luxury cars worth about €4 million (£3.3m) that were seized by prosecutors, pending the investigations.
In Munich last week, US Vice President JD Vance took a swipe at European governments for what he described as their censorship of free speech and their political opponents and specifically mentioned the cancellation of Romania's presidential election based on what he said was flimsy evidence.
Romania's top court ordered a rerun of the vote following suspicion of Russian interference in favour of the unexpected first round winner, the pro-Russian far-right Calin Georgescu.
Russia denied any interference in Romania's election campaigns.