Alleged rapists and human traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate are suing 13 social media users for defamation, claiming they conspired to spread smears against the controversial influencer brothers.
The aggressive legal move, slammed by victims’ rights activists as an ‘intimidation tactic’, comes as Andrew’s influencer girlfriend filed a lawsuit against him on Thursday for alleged abuse including choking her on March 11 in Beverly Hills shortly after he returned to the US.
The Tates’ 61-page defamation lawsuit, filed from their new home of Florida, is the latest attempt by the multi-millionaire brothers to shut down accusers who claim they ran a criminal organization forcing women to make OnlyFans porn, trafficked minors for sex, beat and raped victims.
Their Palm Beach County court complaint is against a total 15 defendants, some identified only by their X social media usernames, such as ‘CrayonMurders’ and ‘Mad_About_Sheep’.
Among the 15 are popular n YouTuber Nathan Livingstone, UK lawyer for alleged Tate victims Matthew Jury, and top sex exploitation victim advocate Eleanor Gaetan, who also represents the Tates’ sex abuse accusers.
The Tate brothers claim these X users formed a group called ‘Team Matrix’ to ‘maliciously defame the Tate Brothers and turn public opinion against them,’ using information fed to them by lawyers for the alleged Tate victims.
Gaetan works for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). The Center’s President Marcel van der Watt called the case an ‘intimidation tactic’ and ‘utterly without merit and an attack on her First Amendment Rights’ in a statement released last week.
‘This defamation suit is yet another intimidation tactic that is the Tate brothers’ modus operandi for silencing critics and witnesses against them,’ van der Watt said.
Livingstone, who goes by MilkBarTV online, responded to the Tates’ defamation lawsuit with a devastating compilation video posted on X Wednesday, showing Andrew describing intense violence.
‘Here’s a little move. When I grab you by your neck and you start annoying me, trying to resist, and I just – pow,’ Andrew said in the clip, aggressively pounding his fist repeatedly.
‘Then I grab you by the neck again. Then what the f*** you going to do when your face is collapsed and your f***ing cheekbones broken?
‘I guarantee I’m going to change the way you look at sex forever,’ he said in another clip. ‘I bet you cry, b****. I bet you f***ing cry.
‘I don’t even have to f*** you. That’s a distraction. My d*** can stay in my pants. I’ll just start beating the s*** out of you.’
Livingstone captioned the video: ‘Believe people when they tell you what they are.’
The Tates have already hit back in Florida courts with a $5million defamation lawsuit against one of their accusers filed in July 2023, which is currently moving towards trial.
Last January a US federal judge threw out another Tate lawsuit against a Marine who reported them to Romanian authorities.
Their new lawsuit opens up a new legal battle amid a slew of criminal investigations and civil complaints involving the two brothers.
The Tates face rape and human trafficking charges in the UK as well as a $27million tax evasion lawsuit brought by British police; rape, human trafficking and organized crime charges in Romania, with further Romanian police investigations over trafficking and sex with minors; a criminal investigation ordered by Florida’s Attorney General and civil lawsuits by their alleged victims.
The brothers were forced to fly back to their former home Romania last Saturday to face a continuing criminal sex trafficking case there.
Andrew and Tristan deny all the claims against them.
The latest accuser to come forward is Andrew’s ex-girlfriend, Bri Stern.
TMZ reported on Wednesday that Stern accused him in a police report of choking her during sex at the Beverly Hills Hotel despite her begging him to stop – to the point where she allegedly began to black out.
The celebrity news site published photos of Stern’s alleged injuries and eye-popping screenshots of her alleged text messages with Tate, in which he appears to tell her ‘I really love hitting you’, ‘I want to beat the f*** out of you’, and ‘you need to be hit’.
Stern reportedly claimed that Tate began strangling her during sex. When it got too rough, she ‘begged’ him to stop, TMZ reported, but he allegedly continued.
When he finished, she went to the bathroom to document her injuries, according to the police report.
Pictures published by the site show a large red mark on her cheek.
She also reportedly went to an ER in New York days later when they traveled to the East Coast on a work trip for Andrew.
A March 15 medical report from Northwell Health shared with TMZ shows a diagnosis of ‘post concussive syndrome’, which can be caused ‘from a direct hit to the head or body’.
In a screenshot of an alleged text exchange, Andrew appears to tell Stern: ‘I will hit you today. But I love you.’
She responded: ‘I’m scared,’ and he replied ‘Don’t care.’
‘I want to beat the f*** out of you,’ said another alleged message. ‘You will give me a child this year b***h.’
‘Why do u want to beat me,’ she appeared to reply. ‘What’s the point in having you if I don’t beat you and impregnate you,’ the reply in the screenshot said.
‘I really love hitting you it’s very good for me and you. It’s relaxing don’t you think?’
‘Pookie no I cry,’ she replied.
‘If you ever betray me you will regret it,’ he allegedly added in another text.
Stern filed a lawsuit against Tate in Los Angeles on Thursday over the alleged abuse and posted about it in a string of tweets on X.
‘I met Andrew Tate in the summer of 2024 and we were in a relationship for almost a year,’ she wrote on X. ‘He wanted me to have his children and always told me we would be together forever. Andrew told me he loved me every day, and I was very much in love with him.
‘The last time I saw Andrew was on March 11, 2025 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The last words he said to me before I left the hotel were: “Shut the f*** up, b***h. You will never backtalk me. You are my property.”
‘This wasn’t a joke or an internet façade. This was the reality of my boyfriend and my life,’ she added. ‘The last week has been very difficult and extremely scary for me. I am an emotional wreck and am constantly looking over my shoulder. I’m not the person I was before.
‘He has told me on many occasions before that if I crossed him, he would ruin my life, rape me, or kill me.
‘There are many women out there who are in the same position as me – terrified and scared, who are being hurt by the person who is supposed to love them most. To those women I say, you are much stronger than you know.’
Her attorney, Tony Buzbee, is also representing dozens of alleged Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs victims.
Tate’s lawyer, Joseph McBride, said Andrew ‘firmly denies the allegations against him’.
‘This is a blatant cash grab – a desperate attempt by a sad individual to exploit Andrew’s success and reputation for personal gain,’ McBride said in a statement.
McBride, told DailyMail.com that the alleged text messages between Andrew and Stern were ‘not real’.
McBride’s comment also included several criticisms of Livingstone’s character.
Tate’s lawyer said that NCOSE’s statement ‘undermines Andrew and Tristan’s right to sue the female predator who attempted to run their lives.’
He said the brothers had ‘hundreds of exhibits’ backing up their case against the unnamed female accuser who they sued for defamation in 2023.
The claims are bad news for the disgraced male influencer, who returned to the US in February after five months under house arrest in Romania on sex trafficking charges with Tristan.
The brothers were welcomed by Trump’s inner circle, including Donald Trump Jr., who called their detention in Romania ‘absolute insanity’.
But other US officials are less keen on their presence.
Within days of their move to Florida, the state’s Attorney General James Uthmeier said his office had opened a criminal investigation into the brothers.
Governor Ron DeSantis issued a statement when Tates arrived saying he and his office had no involvement in their arrival.
‘Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct in the air,’ he said. ‘And I don’t know how it came to this. We were not involved, we were not notified.’
Andrew claimed he smoothed things over with DeSantis, telling media ‘there’ve been some conversations and everything has been settled’.
But the governor’s spokesman told local newspaper the Tallahassee Democrat on Tuesday that ‘Nothing of the sort happened, and our position is unchanged.’