© AP / Vadim GhirdaAndrew Tate leaves a courthouse in Bucharest, Romania, April 21, 2023.
Tate's bid to sue the reservist in a federal court in Florida was tossed by Judge Robin Rosenberg - who said 'Sergeant Doe' had no choice but to inform his superiors because texts he received from an alleged victim were 'so serious'.
But the judge, sitting in the Southern District of Florida, refused to dismiss a defamation claim in the same complaint against the 'victim' and another woman who say they were imprisoned by Tate, 37, and his 35-year-old brother Tristan in Romania after going there to model for them.
The brothers, dual US and UK citizens, were seized by police in the Eastern European country's capital Bucharest in December 2022. They were later released, but are still barred from leaving Romania where they deny charges of human trafficking, organizing a gang to exploit women and rape brought in June 2023.
His $5million lawsuit says a woman identified only as 'Jane Doe' texted the marine 'distressing messages' that she was being 'human trafficked' and his 'defamatory act' was forwarding the message to the US embassy in Bucharest.
In her ruling, Judge Rosenberg cited the texts from Jane Doe in previous court filings that claimed 'groomers and handlers' were present and 'the hard thing (was) getting out of the house'.
Jane Doe, from Palm Beach County, had to 'make a plan using her hidden passport' but if the handlers saw the two women leave, one text said, they would call the brothers who would contact airports to stop them getting out.
The texts grew more frantic as Jane Doe alleged the Tates 'know everyone' and have mob ties, according to the filing.
Judge Rosenberg wrote in her ruling: 'Jane Doe shared that the plaintiffs 'are actually evil', making 'women cut themselves' and 'sell their bodies' through coercion and threats of abduction or death.
'Jane Doe attributed her lack of injuries to her short tenure at the house and not yet being suspected of wanting to leave.'
Sergeant Doe urged the woman to 'contact the US embassy but she did not 'feel safe doing that'.
Judge Rosenberg concluded: 'The text messages that Sergeant Doe received were so concerning and involved a situation so serious that any reasonable person would have acted to save the potential trafficking victim.
'He did what the legal system encourages people who suspect criminal activity to do - alert authorities with the power to investigate and act.'
Sergeant Doe's tip-off sparked a chain of events that saw the Romanian organized-crime squad raid the Tates' compound, where the two women were found.
According to court documents, Jane Doe traveled to Romania to meet the Tates and explore work for the OnlyFans website and other internet modeling after meeting Tristan at an event in Miami.
The second woman is described in the case as 'Mary Doe'. She is a Romanian-Moldavan national wooed to Bucharest from her home in the United Kingdom who believed she was in a romantic relationship with Andrew Tate after meeting him online.
Jane Doe's parents, from Palm Beach County, are also being sued by the Tates in the same defamation action. Judge Rosenberg ordered the case against the remaining four defendants to be moved from federal court to Palm Beach County state court.
None of the defendants is named as the judge has ruled all their identities should be protected following vicious online threats from Andrew Tate fans.
A motion stated: 'There is a risk of physical harm and... the safety concerns apply equally to all defendants'.
However all five went back to court in November demanding the Tates stick to the ruling after it was breached in further court documents from the brothers. Documents that originally included the names are now no longer publicly available.
Comment: Tate is an absolute slime ball with a sick and twisted sense of morality coming after the people that outed him as if they were in the wrong, not him. See also: