STATEMENT OF JOSEPH D. MCBRIDE REGARDING THE ROMANIAN PROCEEDINGS
Romania has active criminal proceedings involving Andrew and Tristan Tate. Romanian counsel has advised the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida that Andrew and Tristan must either be permitted to return to Romania to defend those proceedings or be released on bond in the United States so they can meaningfully prepare their Romanian defense with counsel.
Andrew and Tristan’s continued incarceration at FDC Miami is highly prejudicial. At minimum, Andrew and Tristan should be released to home confinement while the Romanian proceedings and the United Kingdom’s extradition request are resolved.
Andrew and Tristan’s incarceration makes meaningful communication with Romanian counsel and preparation for the Romanian proceedings practically impossible. Access to Romanian counsel is severely restricted. The time difference between Miami and Romania further limits attorney-client communications. Counsel must also navigate substantial attorney-client privilege concerns when communicating with Andrew and Tristan from a federal detention facility.
The volume of material makes these restrictions even more prejudicial. The photograph accompanying this statement shows only a portion of the first Romanian case file, which consisted of approximately 78 volumes. The new Romanian file is approximately 159 volumes. Andrew, Tristan, and Romanian counsel must be able to review this material together, analyze the evidence, prepare defenses, and make critical decisions concerning active criminal proceedings. That cannot be accomplished while Andrew and Tristan are incarcerated at FDC Miami.
These are extraordinary circumstances. Andrew and Tristan are American citizens incarcerated in the United States at the request of the United Kingdom while Romania, a separate sovereign and NATO ally, has active criminal proceedings requiring Andrew and Tristan to participate in the preparation and defense of their cases. These competing international judicial proceedings constitute special circumstances that weigh heavily in favor of release.
The United Kingdom is not the only sovereign with a legitimate judicial claim to Andrew and Tristan’s presence. Romania is an EU member, a NATO ally, and the country where these matters have been litigated for years.
Any attempt to extradite Andrew and Tristan from the United States to the United Kingdom must account for the pending Romanian proceedings and Andrew and Tristan’s right to be present in Romania to defend themselves.
Jailing Andrew and Tristan in the United States while two allied nations assert competing claims to Andrew and Tristan’s presence compounds the prejudice.
WHAT THEY DID TO ANDREW AND TRISTAN TATE ON SUNDAY
Andrew and Tristan Tate remain in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) at FDC Miami. They have seen the sun only four times since July 18th.
On Sunday, guards deployed OC spray in the SHU. My clients, Andrew and Tristan Tate, had nothing to do with the incident. They were locked in their cells when it happened.
The guards had gas masks. Andrew and Tristan, however, were afforded no such luxury. Locked in a cell with nowhere to go, the chemical spray quickly filled the SHU, poured into their cells, and burned their eyes, throats, and airways.
To protect themselves, Andrew and Tristan wet their T-shirts in the shower and wrapped their eyes and heads in the shirts as best they could.
The Bureau of Prisons' own regulation demands immediate medical examination and treatment. The Department of Justice's own manual says the first aid for this chemical is fresh air and copious amounts of cool water. Andrew and Tristan received no air, no water, no doctor, and no nurse.
Two men convicted of no crime in any country on Earth wrapped wet T-shirts around their faces, sat in a chemical cloud, and waited.
You do not have to take my word for it. Two hours later, my co-counsel Tom Maniotis arrived at the facility for a legal visit. The air was still so toxic that his eyes burned and he struggled to breathe. Thomas cut the meeting short and agreed to come back in two hours to give time for the chemicals to clear out.
Thomas went to our apartment and washed his face and hands. He returned to the SHU a second time, where the meeting had to be cut short because his eyes were irritated and his throat was burning. So much so that he went straight from the jail to urgent care, where he was diagnosed with acute toxic conjunctivitis, a chemical injury to his eyes.
That diagnosis is on paper, from a hospital. Think about what I am saying. Thomas' short-term exposure sent him straight to urgent care. Andrew and Tristan have been stuck in the SHU since this incident happened without medical care or decontamination protocol of any kind.
They sit in that cell over no American charge and no broken rule. They sit there because the United Kingdom, which watched them travel freely for three years and did nothing, suddenly demanded their arrest.
Instead of the safekeeping the law requires, Andrew and Tristan are being horribly punished. Four hours of sunlight in three weeks, bunks too short for their bodies, no pillows, legal meetings in rooms monitored by cameras, and now a chemical agent in their cells with no help afterward.
The Supreme Court says a man awaiting trial may not be punished at all. England's own law says a man jailed before trial is held for safe custody and not for punishment. Every rule forbids what is happening inside that building, and it is happening anyway.
On Thursday, August 13, a federal judge in Miami will hear our motion for Andrew and Tristan's release. If you care about justice and the right of all American citizens not to be punished this way, then you must speak out.
Let the whole world see your anger by sharing this post.
Punishment before judgment is tyranny.
Free Andrew and Tristan Tate. Free Them Now.
250 years of American independence and we are relying on English “Trust me Bro” to throw Americans in jail?
They’ve sent no names of my “victims”.
No evidence of any kind. Not a single drop of any evidence.
They sent a single letter saying “We think he did something in 2015 please arrest him”
I am being held in the strictest possible jail conditions. The same as cop killers and terrorists.
There are no conditions stronger which can be imposed upon a man by the American government.
If I had blown up a shopping mall I would be in the SHU unit.
I'm here because of “Trust me Bro” from a failed country that locks people up for tweets,
I have no criminal record. I've never been convicted of anything.
This is insane.