The White House has "no role" to play in the extradition to the UK of Andrew and Tristan Tate to face rape and sex trafficking charges, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said.
It comes after the controversial social media influencers appeared in a federal court in Miami on Monday following their arrest on Saturday on a UK extradition request.
British authorities have brought 38 new charges against the brothers, who have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
The Tates' lawyer said on Monday that the siblings, who hold dual US and British citizenship, will fight extradition to the UK.
Speaking during an overseas trip to the Philippines, Mr Rubio, who is America's top diplomat, was asked whether he intended to get involved in the extradition challenge.
Mr Rubio said: "These cases have a process that they go through in the courts.
"My understanding is that they're involved in that judicial process and so that'll play itself out at this point.
"There's no role for us to play at this moment or maybe ever in that regard.
"But I'm not going to opine on something that's still working through a legal process."
This echoed remarks by the brothers' lawyer Joe McBride, who said the current involvement of Donald Trump was "not necessary".
He was responding to reports that the US president would not step in to block the extradition.
Ahead of the pair's preliminary court hearing on Monday, Mr McBride had sought to pitch the case as a prosecution of free speech, with the Tates "being punished and attacked for what they say, not what they've done".
Referring to the administration and specifically to Mr Rubio, he said: "They're not fans of prosecuting people for free speech. This is one of the reasons why they've been elected.
"So I would just think, as a matter of principle, based on the reasons why they were elected, that they would not want to see two free citizens go to a country where they're going to be thrown in jail for political reasons."
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59 charges brought against Andrew and Tristan Tate
Andrew, 39, has been charged with seven further counts of rape and several trafficking and assault offences, while Tristan, 38, is charged with two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault as well as trafficking offences.
Andrew has also been charged with offences "relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pornography".
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it had identified four additional alleged victims. It said the 38 additional charges, in addition to 21 existing charges, relate to alleged offences between July 2010 and August 2017.
The brothers have previously denied allegations of sexual abuse and trafficking, claiming that violent and misogynistic statements have been taken out of context or were intended as jokes.
In the coming weeks, a US district judge will consider whether they meet the conditions for extradition.
(c) Sky News 2026: 'No role' for White House in extradition to UK of Tate brothers, says US secretary of sta
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