MIAMI — Tristan Tate, the “manosphere” influencer accused of sex crimes in the United Kingdom, made a surprise appearance on the witness stand Thursday, telling a judge he’s not his outrageous online personality in real life.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis will decide whether the dual American and U.K. citizen brothers, Andrew and Tristan Tate, should be eligible for bail as they fight extradition across the Atlantic.
Tristian Tate told the court that his testimony is coming against the advice of his own defense attorneys.
“I am being held in a single room, I don’t believe that it’s been made clear enough why I need to be on bail,” Tristan Tate said.
The defendant compared he and his brother’s online personas to actor Sacha Baron Cohen, the famed British Jewish comic who best known playing antisemitic journalist Borat Sagdiyev.
“The reason Borat is such a hilarious comedic figure, it wouldn’t be the same if Sasha Baron Cohen was going around saying the same thing,” Tate said.
There’s no way, Tate said, he’d be able to tolerate their online persons in real life.
“Top G is a hilarious character,” Tate testified. “I couldn’t live with Top G, I couldn’t live with him in the special housing unit.”
He added: “I think I’d end up punching him in the face but thankfully he’s not a real man.”
The defendant said he spends his days locked in a 5-by-11 cell that has a bunk bed, a toilet and unwanted roommates.
“There are ants, there are roaches,” Tate said. “I have been subject to chemical attacks.”
His daily diet consists mostly of candy and chips, calling that: ”It’s death by scurvy instead of death by starvation.”
The brothers, shackled and wearing light-beige jail garb on Thursday, were taken into custody in Miami in July after prosecutors in the United Kingdom filed new charges against them. They are fighting extradition to that county.
Defense lawyer Howard Srebnick argued that his clients are not flight risks and have appeared “each and every time” for court dates in the U.K. and Romania.
Their confinement poses an undue burden on the defendants, Srebnick said, adding that Tristan Tate has a child with special needs who depends on him.
