Law&Crime Sidebar - Could Ethan Klein Lose a Defamation Lawsuit to Andrew Tate?

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

Former kickboxer and UK Big Brother contestant Andrew Tate is threatening to sue podcast host Ethan Klein for defamation over his comments accusing Tate of being a sex trafficker. YouTube hos...t Spencer Cornelia joins Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy to break down the 1st Amendment fight between them. GUESTS:Spencer Cornelia, YouTuber: https://www.youtube.com/c/SpencerCorneliaLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. views shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that
Starting point is 00:00:35 will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Nothing's happened since. No woman's come forward. Nobody's hurt. Nothing. Former kickboxer and Big Brother UK contestant Andrew Tate threatens to sue the host of a YouTube show for defamation. But can this suit succeed? And what is it really about? I'm Ann Janette Levy and welcome to Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast. Andrew Tate claims that Ethan Klein, the host of the H3 podcast, called him a sex trafficker among other things. And he sent Klein a cease and desist letter through his lawyers. Tate has been kicked off of several social media
Starting point is 00:01:23 platforms for so-called misogyny and hateful ideology. And joining us to talk about this is Spencer Cornelia. He hosts his own YouTube show. So Spencer, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for coming on. I think this is a really fascinating topic, one that's important for YouTube and I'm fascinated to see what your opinion is on it. Well, I don't have an opinion here. I mean, I'll offer a little bit later on, but I'm just the person asking the questions. So tell us, you did a whole YouTube video about this. Tell us exactly what happened. Sure. So Andrew Tate recently banned has been sharing a lot of extreme opinions on social. media and has amassed a huge following and a lot of popularity. And a commenter channel H3
Starting point is 00:02:05 podcast, they make a lot of videos about popular social media creators. And thus far, they've made at least 22, to my knowledge, at least 22 videos mentioning his name. And in those videos, they have mentioned that he is, or they have insinuated that he's a convicted criminal, of which to date he is not. And so I think it's going to present a really interesting legal battle if Andrew Tate decides to sue. And so Andrew Tate obviously took offense to this. His lawyer sent the Csendis letter saying, knock it off, quit saying these things about me. But Andrew Tate is also a public figure. And we know from covering defamation cases in the past that being a public figure
Starting point is 00:02:42 kind of raises the bar for proving defamation. So in order to win this case, Andrew Tate would have to prove that these statements were, A, not true, B, made with actual malice as an Ethan Klein meant to cause him some type of harm. And I think that Andrew Tate, would actually have to prove that he was damaged by this. So he's already been kicked off of TikTok and other platforms. I mean, so what are your thoughts on that, given the fact that he's already been sort of de-platformed? Sure. In California, you have the defamation per se. And so I think when you, and again, I'm not an expert in law in any regard, but calling someone fat or ugly or something, like, yeah, you'd probably have to prove damages to prove defamation. But I think there is a line that
Starting point is 00:03:25 they've crossed where they've started making criminal accusations. And I would be really fascinated to see if they have to prove damages, the plaintiff side in this case, or if the damages are insinuated because they're making such vile criminal accusations. And that's when, if I knew the law more, I'd probably have a better opinion, but I'd be really curious about that. I mean, these are very, these are terrible things to say about somebody to imply that they're trafficking in people for sex and may have even done things to children. Ethan Klein, you know, he kind of talked about this only, in my opinion, very vaguely on his YouTube channel. I mean, he didn't really, he just kind of hit the headline was Andrew Tate's going to sue me.
Starting point is 00:04:04 And then they kind of just talked back and forth for a brief time during their show about it. There were two instances that I felt were very clearly crossing the line, one of which was they showed a picture of Andrew Tate, a picture of him that he's posted to the internet. And then they edited it, Photoshop to put him on a school bus with children. And they said, this is actually Andrew Tate's what he does during the day. He sits on a bus with children so he can groom them into his sex trafficking business. Cobra Taint does, and here's the reality. He's actually on the school bus.
Starting point is 00:04:33 Oh, no. He, like I said, he grooms it. He gets him young and just like a model scout, you know, for his webcam, get thing. That was one claim. And then there was another where Andrew Tate in a video claim that he has recently rebuilt an orphanage in Romania included pictures of him with assuming the kids from the orphanage and Ethan Klein and his co-hosts reacted by saying this guy has an orphanage how do we let him have an orphanage he's grooming these kids into sex sex trafficking recently rebuilt an entire
Starting point is 00:05:09 orphanage because there's an orphanage problem with Romania I did this make it build an orphanage shut up the Tate Foundation that's probably just a funnel for sex trafficking sounds like something the FBI should look looking to. Yeah. For real. This man has an orphanage. Okay. Can we please alert the authority? I can be nervous. I felt like those were very, very, very clear messages that Ethan sent, and I find that
Starting point is 00:05:35 to be very defamatory. Let's take a look at a video that Ethan Klein made talking about this issue. Anyone that was following this knows that Andrew Tate has been crying about his right to free speech. So, Spencer, what is your take on what Ethan Klein said after receiving this cease and desist letter? I think he has reached a point where he is very comfortable saying whatever he wants. He is now three for three on defamation cases. He is won all three. And I have to add that he, his first lawsuit that was dealing with defamation actually was
Starting point is 00:06:08 very pivotal to YouTube creators as a whole being able to have freedom to say and to react and comment on other YouTube videos. So it was very important that he won that case. However, I feel like he's gotten too comfortable. And he is certainly shown an interest in making the most scandalous remarks about certain people. And I feel like he's crossed the line. And so I think with this defamation lawsuit, he's not taking it seriously because I think he can just win by claiming freedom of speech. So you think he will win. Maybe that Andrew Tate's reputation is just that bad that Ethan Klein will win. The reason why I find this case absolutely fascinating is I think he shouldn't win based on what I've scene, but also I think it will set an interesting precedent for YouTubers and where the line
Starting point is 00:06:52 gets set and what you can and can't say. I don't think he win personally. I don't think I think Andrew Tate could win this one. And why do you think that? You said you're not a lawyer, but why do you believe that? Yeah, from my perspective, I feel like he's made claims that Andrew is a convicted criminal. When you call someone, I won't say the word, the R word, R-A-P-I-S-T, and among other things, without any proof, without any victims, I'm going through my own defamation case now, and I have Of course, I'm not an expert in the matter, but I feel like I'm certainly better served to speak about this than other YouTubers. I've noticed in my own case on how you have to present evidence. You can't just make accusations, and you need to present evidence of why you believe something to be true.
Starting point is 00:07:33 And they can obviously point to certain videos online and just say, hey, this guy's mean. This guy says bad things about women. And while that might be true, you can't call someone an RAPIST or these other claims that he is sex trafficking women, and there's absolutely no proof of it. there's a huge difference between possibly having women in your house, which there was belief that there was women in his house held captive or something, found out that that was not the case. That's certainly a different argument than sex trafficking. I mean, sex trafficking is a very heinous behavior, one in which I don't believe Andrew Tate has been any proof showing that he's participating in. Well, right now, there's a cease and desist letter. That's all we know. A lawsuit
Starting point is 00:08:11 has not yet been filed, but obviously Andrew Tate has a lawyer. So we'll keep an eye on this and see where it goes from here. Spencer Cornelia, thanks again for coming on to talk with us. We appreciate it. Thanks for having it. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

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