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An American woman on Monday filed a countersuit against Andrew and Tristan Tate in the first U.S. case brought against the influencers, her lawyer said.

The two men have faced criminal investigations in Romania and the U.K. over alleged human trafficking and sex crimes. In July 2023, the two men filed a lawsuit against two women and a few of their outcry witnesses who cooperated with Romanian authorities in the rape, trafficking and gang activity case they faced.

The lawyer representing Jane Doe, the pseudonym for the Florida woman the Tates sued, told USA TODAY Wednesday they had exhausted all options to dismiss the lawsuit, but now it was time to tell her side of the story.

“The Tate brothers and their attorneys have, in our opinion, taken advantage of the closed Romanian criminal system… to spin a narrative and attack a witness against them and pin all their problems on her,” said Dani Pinter with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “So we are looking forward to just finally getting the truth out and making it clear what really happened.”

‘Unbelievable toll’:Tate accusers see waves of online hate as brothers sue for defamation

Countersuit alleges conspiring to sex trafficking by coercion, defamation

The Tate brothers’ lawsuit painted Jane Doe as “a serial extortionist and blackmailer who preys on successful men,” and it details incidents predating her time in Romania, including relationships she had with older men when she was a minor. It accused her and another woman, who has since been dropped from the proceedings due to lack of jurisdiction, of various allegations including false imprisonment, interference in business, conspiracy, emotional distress, and defamation.

Monday’s lawsuit, filed on behalf of the woman, was more than 180 pages of responses to the allegations, including criticisms of the Tate brothers’ online personas as “self-confessed webcam pimps and pornographers,” and counterclaims alleging sex trafficking by force and/or coercion, conspiracy to violate the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, defamation, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Jane Doe met Tristan Tate in Miami in the fall of 2021 where he teased the possibility of a serious romantic relationship before she flew to Romania to visit him, the complaint states. Upon arrival, he said he wanted to manage her OnlyFans account, though she said she was nervous as she had only posted a few non-sexually explicit pictures on it, according to the counterclaim.

When other women were at the house in Romania, Jane Doe felt something was off and “she became concerned she was lured to Romania on false pretenses,” the complaint states. Jane Doe shared her experience with another woman, identified in the suit as Mary Doe, who had been at the house for a few weeks before Jane Doe’s arrival. They became concerned they were being groomed for sexual videos, making a plan to escape together, the court document states.

The women thought it would be safest to sneak out in the middle of the night, but a friend of Jane Doe’s who is a U.S. Marine tipped off the U.S. Embassy in Romania, the complaint states. The women cooperated with Romanian authorities, who already had opened a criminal investigation into the Tate brothers, when they raided the brothers’ compound in April 2022, court records show.

Joseph McBride, a lawyer representing the Tate brothers in the U.S. lawsuit, said he is pleased with how it is going and looks forward to trial.

“NCOSE’s civil suit is a poorly constructed and desperate attempt to relitigate the failed Romanian criminal case in a U.S. court. Shockingly, NCOSE has blatantly disregarded Judge Curley’s order to seal the Romanian indictment by copying and pasting large sections of the Romanian indictment into their flawed lawsuit,” McBride said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY. “We are asking the court to sanction NCOSE for its actions, and are awaiting the Judge’s ruling.”

Tate brothers’ lawsuit against accusers prompted widespread harassment

When the Tate brothers’ lawsuit was first filed in Florida, screenshots and copies of the complaint spread online and became fodder for a wave of scornful messages and posts towards the women, USA TODAY previously reported. It included personally identifiable information about Jane Doe, including passport number, date of birth and family names.

“The Tate brothers’ lawsuit is a grave abuse of process brought − not for any legitimate judicial purpose − but instead, to bully and harass Jane Doe and other victims into recanting their testimony against the Tate brothers, and the others involved in their scheme,” Monday’s filing stated.

Lawyers representing the women requested using of a pseudonym for the women by submitting a court filing with more than 50 pages of screenshots with messages and comments online saying things like “you deserve to die,” and “keep changing your name we will always find you.”

Jane Doe called the online harassment she faced worse than what she experienced in Romania.

“She’s very scared. I think she has mixed feelings, though. I think she feels some relief at finally being able to fight back,” Pinter said in the interview. “She has a right to vindicate herself, finally. You know, they started this, and so now they’re in it. They’re gonna have to deal with it.”

Andrew Tate’s criminal charges explained

The Tate brothers were charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women in June 2023. The first criminal failed in December after an appeals court ruled against him on trial and sent the case back to prosecutors, according to Reuters. In March 2024, British authorities issued an arrest warrant for the Tate brothers but Romanian officials said they would be extradited only after the Romanian legal proceedings had wrapped up. They have denied wrongdoing.

Tate was under house arrest from August, when he faced a second Romanian criminal case, until January, Reuters reported.

Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com, and follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley.