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(WASHINGTON) — After a U.S. Army soldier launched international headlines by apparently intentionally crossing the border into North Korea on Tuesday, the Biden administration sent mixed signals on how far it might be willing to go to secure his release.

“We’re looking into this,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce, adding that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the matter and that U.S. officials were still gathering the facts.

“The White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and also the U.N. are all working together to ascertain more information and resolve this situation,” Jean-Pierre said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Pentagon had reached out to North Korean military officials on the matter and that he was “absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop,” identified by U.S. officials as 23-year-old Pvt. Travis King.

Although King is now the first American in nearly five years known to be detained by North Korea — a country notorious for its harsh prison conditions — the State Department indicated it would take a restrained approach as officials said they had seen no clear sign that King wanted to return to the U.S.

Hours after the incident, spokesperson Matthew Miller said the State Department had not directly reached out to any foreign governments about the case because it did not see such outreach as “an appropriate or necessary step.”

While the U.S. does not have a direct diplomatic relations with North Korea, limited consular services are often made available to American citizens in the country through Sweden, which serves as the protecting power for the U.S.

Miller said the State Department may attempt to extend that assistance to King.

“I will just say that, as always, the safety and security of any American overseas remains the top priority for the United States,” he said. “Whatever we can do to resolve this situation we will of course not hesitate to take the appropriate step.

Sweden has also served as an effective intermediary in other cases involving Western nationals imprisoned by Pyongyang.

Before crossing into the Korean demilitarized zone, King spent 47 days at a South Korean detention facility following an altercation with local and was set to return to the U.S. to face disciplinary action, according to one U.S. official.

Prior to King, Bruce Byron Lowrance was the last American known to be held by North Korea. Lowrance illegally crossed over the border from China in October 2018 and was jailed for roughly a month before ultimately being deported with minimal international intervention.

North Korea has released several other American prisoners in recent years, including Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia student who entered the country as part of a guided group tour in 2015 and was convicted of stealing a propaganda poster during his stay.

Due to unknown causes, Warmbier slipped into a vegetative state shortly after his sentencing. Pyongyang allowed the student to be repatriated to the U.S. in 2017 while he in a coma, but he died less than a week after his return.

The following year, Pyongyang freed three Americans — Kim Hak Song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong Chul — shortly after then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the country, a move that laid the groundwork for the first summit between former President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un.

But during President Biden’s time in office, communication with the hermit kingdom has been virtually nonexistent, with the administration maintaining it is ready to engage with Pyongyang without any preconditions but receiving no substantive response.

Beyond its human rights record and strict isolationism, North Korea poses significant national security and diplomatic challenges to the U.S., including through its resurgent nuclear program and frequent ballistic missile launches — violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

In the past, American leaders have been able to rely on China to steer North Korea, but both Beijing’s willingness and ability to intercede has increasingly coming into question.

During the Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s engagement with his Chinese counterpart earlier this month, North Korea was not even on the agenda, officials said.

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(NEW YORK) — A U.S. Army private who had just finished a stint in a South Korean detention facility crossed the border into North Korea “without authorization” and is in custody in the secretive country, United Nations and U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The soldier was identified as 23-year-old Pvt. Travis King, a U.S. official confirmed. He’s been a cavalry scout in the Army since January 2021 and has no deployments, according to service information provided by Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee.

“A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the United Nations Command said on Twitter. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident.”

The Joint Security Area, or JSA, sits in the Demilitarized Zone along the border between North and South Korea.

King had served 47 days at a South Korean detention facility following an altercation with locals, according to a U.S. official.

Two other U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News King was released from the detention facility, then spent about a week at a U.S. base in South Korea under observation. He completed out-processing from the facility and on Monday was escorted to the Incheon International Airport as far as the customs checkpoint. The military escort had no ticket and was not allowed past the checkpoint, so King continued into the terminal alone.

He was supposed to board a flight and end up in Fort Bliss, Texas, according to an official. Awaiting him there was a “pending administrative separation actions for foreign conviction,” according to another official.

But instead he ended up leaving the terminal for a DMZ tour. It is not clear when he bought a ticket.

Because King had finished serving his time, he was no longer under custody. An escort to the gate was not required, and there was no reason to suspect he would fail to board his flight.

The military will not publicly identity King until next of kin are notified. While “next of kin notification” is usually associated with the deaths of service members, in this case it’s not clear the soldier will ever return from North Korea, so the family notification process works similarly.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin briefly addressed the incident during a news conference Tuesday alongside Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley.

“We’re very early in this event and so there’s a lot that we’re still trying to learn,” he said. “What we do know is that one of our service members who was on a tour willfully and without authorization crossed the military demarcation line. We believe that he is in DPRK custody. We’re closely monitoring and investigating the situation, and working to notify the soldier’s next of kin and engaging to address this incident.”

Austin added, “I’m absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop. We will remain focused on this, and this will develop in the next several days.”

President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation, the White House said, though it declined to say how much political capital it would expend to secure the service member’s return after he willfully crossed into the DPRK.

“The White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and also the U.N. are all working together to ascertain more information and resolve this situation,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “I don’t have more to share beyond that. We are looking into this.”

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(BUSAN, South Korea) — A U.S. Navy nuclear-capable submarine on Tuesday made a port call in South Korea for the first time in decades.

The USS Kentucky made a rare stop in Busan, marking the first time a nuclear ballistic missile submarine visited South Korea since 1981.

The development comes as a U.S. service member crossed into North Korea “without authorization” and was in North Korean custody, United Nations official and a U.S. official said Tuesday.

After the U.S. submarine arrived in South Korea, in the early hours of Wednesday local time, North Korea launched a suspected ballistic missile, according to the prime minister of Japan.

The deployment is a realization of a commitment announced by the U.S. in April following a state visit by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The USS Kentucky is one of 14 Ohio Class ballistic missile submarines that can carry up to 20 Trident II D-5 long range ICBMs carrying nuclear warheads, though as standard practice the U.S. Navy doesn’t confirm if there are nuclear weapons aboard when a submarine goes out to sea.

During Yoon’s state visit in April, he and President Joe Biden released a statement saying a future visit by an Ohio-Class submarine to South Korea would “further enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula.”

Yoon, a conservative elected in 2022, stressed the U.S.-South Korea alliance was a “linchpin” in safeguarding freedom in the Indo-Pacific while he was in Washington.

According to the press release from U.S. Forces Korea the USS Kentucky’s arrival “demonstrates the flexibility, survivability, readiness, resolve, and capability of the U.S. Navy submarine forces” and “reflects the United States’ ironclad commitment to the Republic of Korea for our extended deterrence guarantee.”

The U.S. Forces Korea shared images of the submarine on its Twitter page.

ABC’s Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(BUSAN, South Korea) — A U.S. Navy nuclear-capable submarine on Tuesday made a port call in South Korea for the first time in decades.

The USS Kentucky made a rare stop in Busan, marking the first time a nuclear ballistic missile submarine visited South Korea since 1981.

The development comes as a U.S. service member crossed into North Korea “without authorization” and was in North Korean custody, United Nations official and a U.S. official said Tuesday.

The deployment is a realization of a commitment announced by the U.S. in April following a state visit by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The USS Kentucky is one of 14 Ohio Class ballistic missile submarines that can carry up to 20 Trident II D-5 long range ICBMs carrying nuclear warheads, though as standard practice the U.S. Navy doesn’t confirm if there are nuclear weapons aboard when a submarine goes out to sea.

During Yoon’s state visit in April, he and President Joe Biden released a statement saying a future visit by an Ohio-Class submarine to South Korea would “further enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula.”

Yoon, a conservative elected in 2022, stressed the U.S.-South Korea alliance was a “linchpin” in safeguarding freedom in the Indo-Pacific while he was in Washington.

According to the press release from U.S. Forces Korea the USS Kentucky’s arrival “demonstrates the flexibility, survivability, readiness, resolve, and capability of the U.S. Navy submarine forces” and “reflects the United States’ ironclad commitment to the Republic of Korea for our extended deterrence guarantee.”

The U.S. Forces Korea shared images of the submarine on its Twitter page.

ABC’s Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A U.S. service member who crossed into North Korea “without authorization” is in custody in the secretive country, United Nations and U.S. officials said Tuesday.

“A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the United Nations Command said on Twitter. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident.”

The Joint Security Area, or JSA, sits in the Demilitarized Zone along the border between North and South Korea.

A U.S. official told ABC News that the detainee was a U.S. service member.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Luis Martinez contributed to this story.

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(WASHINGTON) — After Russia announced it would end its participation in a critical deal that has allowed ships to safely export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, top Biden administration officials on Monday accused Moscow of weaponizing food.

But even as they denounced the decision, they signaled there was little the U.S. could do alleviate the hunger crisis in Africa and the Middle East they said Russia’s move would only exacerbate.

“Russia’s decision to resume its effective blockade of Ukrainian ports and prevent this grain from getting to markets will harm people all over the world,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said during a White House briefing. “Russia will be fully and solely responsible for the consequences of this military act of aggression.”

Both Kirby and Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that grain prices had risen in the immediate wake of Russia’s withdrawal from the deal, saying that although the U.S. and its partners would explore alternate export routes, there was no other way to move the same quantity of exports.

“There’s no possible way mathematically we’re going to get as much grain out now,” Kirby said.

Blinken predicted the development would have a “profound chilling effect” on shipping companies.

“Russia is ending this initiative and sending a message that grain cannot and other food products cannot leave Ukraine unimpeded,” he said.

The Biden administration had not played a direct role in the deal, which was first brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July, but officials see Moscow’s reneging as part of play to score reprieves from financial penalties levied against it in response to its invasion of Ukraine — a concession the U.S. and the allies are currently unwilling to make.

Russia halted its participation in the agreement just hours after it blamed Ukraine for an overnight drone strike on the Kerch Bridge, a vital Russian supply line linking occupied Crimea to mainland Russia.

Although Ukrainian officials have suggested its forces were indeed behind the attack that killed two civilians, Biden administration officials declined to offer a public assessment.

“We are not in a position to attribute the attack to any particular party at this point,” Kirby said.

Kirby also said while it was “too soon to know whether that attack on that bridge is going to have any significant military impact on their ability to continue to fight this war,” U.S. officials had not seen any indication that the strike had effected Russia’s defensive posture or its military capabilities in the region.

In a televised address, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “terror attack” carried out by Kyiv and enabled the U.S. and other allies of Ukraine, but the Kremlin insisted that it was not a factor in its decision to pull out of the grain deal.

Instead, Russia says its chief reason for ending the arrangement is that promises to free up its own agricultural exports have gone unfulfilled — claims the U.S. and international organizations deny. Moscow has complained about the agreement since its implementation and previously withdrew from it for a short period of time.

In an address of his own, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had submitted a proposal to the Turkish president and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to carry on the grain deal without Russia’s participation and would work with the mediators on next steps.

“Even without the Russian Federation, everything must be done so that we can use this Black Sea corridor,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Antonio Guterres mourned Moscow’s exit.

“Ultimately, participation in these agreements is a choice. But struggling people everywhere and developing countries don’t have a choice,” he said in a statement. “Hundreds of millions of people face hunger and consumers are confronting a global cost-of-living crisis. They will pay the price.”

ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — A series of explosions damaged a section of the single bridge that connects Russia to Crimea on Monday, marking the latest attack on Moscow’s crucial link to the annexed peninsula.

The blasts occurred before dawn, killing a married couple and wounding their daughter, according to Russian state media. The Crimean Bridge — the longest in Europe — remains open to trains but is now closed to road traffic as Russian authorities assess the damage before determining how long it will take to repair. Footage from the scene on Monday morning showed a damaged section tilted and hanging down.

Russian officials said the strike was carried out by Ukrainian sea drones and described the incident as a terror attack. Ukrainian officials have not yet commented publicly on the matter.

It’s the second major strike on the Crimean Bridge since last October, when a truck loaded with explosives blew up both the road and rail sections. Repairs took months, with the roadway reopening in February and the rail side in May.

Russian troops invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from neighboring Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world denounced as illegal and prompted both the United States and the European Union to impose sanctions on Moscow. But Russian President Vladimir Putin defied the criticism and ordered the construction of a $3.6 billion bridge spanning nearly 12 miles across the Kerch Strait, which separates mainland Russia from Crimea.

After two years of construction, Putin announced the opening of the road section of the Crimean Bridge in 2018. The rail section was finished the following year.

The bridge established Russia’s first land link to Crimea — connecting the southern Russian region of Krasnodar to the peninsula’s port of Kerch — and, thus, is laden with symbolism. Moscow has portrayed the bridge as a physical affirmation of Crimea’s incorporation into Russia. Crimea’s only other land crossing leads into the rest of Ukraine and, until the bridge’s completion, vehicles traveling from Russia have had to rely on ferries across the Kerch Strait that are frequently interrupted by bad weather.

The Crimean Bridge has become a key supply route for the Russian military since its forces invaded Ukraine again in 2022, with the conflict spiraling into an all-out war. The bridge remains essential for Russia’s military operations in southern Ukraine as Ukrainian troops wage a major counteroffensive to take back Russian-seized territory.

Recently, Ukrainian forces have also targeted other bridges connecting Crimea to the southern areas, which analysts said is an effort to break down Russia’s ability to supply its lines in the Zaporozhzhia and Kherson regions.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Iran’s infamous hijab police, known as the “morality police,” are again patrolling the streets, Iranian authorities said.

The controversial measure was announced Sunday along with a series of other severe actions that are being taken against women just 10 months after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, an event that sparked bloody nationwide protests.

“The police … will take legal action against those who, unfortunately, continue to break the dressing norms regardless of the consequences of doing so,” said Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi, spokesman of the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic.

Women will be warned to follow the hijab rules and if they do not follow, the morality police will refer them to the judicial system, he said.

The return of the morality police marks the latest in a series of severe punishments — including arresting activists and implementing uncommon court sentences — for those who do not abide by the mandatory hijab law.

Last week, the picture of a controversial Tehran court sentence was published by domestic news agencies for a woman who was accused of driving without a headscarf. On top of paying fine, the woman is sentenced to “wash dead bodies in Tehran for one month” as a part of “social service.”

In another notorious verdict, Azadeh Samadi, an Iranian actress, was sentenced to refer to a therapist for mental health issues.

The judge in that case told Samadi she needed to refer to a psychology center due to “antisocial personality disorder and her need to be seen via breaking norms.” Samadi was also banned from accessing her social media accounts.

The decision by the country’s hardline leadership regime to send the morality police back into the streets comes two months before the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death. Some activists said on social media that the regime is getting prepared to control the atmosphere for Mahsa Amini’s anniversary.

Amini, 22, was on a trip to Tehran last September when the hijab police, arrested her for not wearing “proper hijab.” She was taken into custody only to be announced dead at a hospital three days later, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Iran Human Rights reported that at least 537 people were killed in the ensuing protests and at least 22,000 people were arrested, with IRNA confirming the number of arrests.

 

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(NEW YORK) — A Cuban rapper, who helped write the 2021 Latin Grammy song of the year, reportedly sewed his own mouth shut to protest his alleged mistreatment in a maximum-security prison on the island, according to posts on his social media pages, other Cuban activists and his wife.

In a photo secretly taken in prison and posted on his Facebook page, Maykel “Osorbo”—one of dozens of political prisoners the Cuban government has held since widespread protests two years ago this month—is seen flipping off the camera with his lips shut. A second, more graphic photo posted on Instagram yesterday clearly shows the stitches on his mouth—and calls for protests in the Miami area this evening.

“He is fed up with the abuses and with being unjustly imprisoned when the whole world is raising its voice for his freedom,” Cuban artist and activist Anamely Ramos González wrote—sharing a poem she says Osorbo wrote in prison, and shared with her during a phone call Wednesday.

“They broke my head with cynicism, but what they couldn’t do was break me, too. While injustice collides, I will not close my arms or close my mouth, I sew it shut nonetheless,” the poem, as translated from Spanish reads.

Cuban authorities reportedly removed the stitches the following day, Osorbo’s wife told Martí Noticias after also speaking with him last week: “He was speaking strangely, like when you have injured lips, an injured mouth, like when you can’t speak. I don’t know how things are going to be from now on.”

While the act of protest is an extreme one, it’s not Osorbo’s first, as he participated in a hunger and thirst strike last year. But this protest coincides with the two-year anniversary of some of the largest island-wide protests Cuba had seen in decades—with demonstrators taking to the streets starting on July 11, 2021, often chanting the name of the award-winning song Osorbo helped pen, “Patria y Vida.”

The song, released months earlier in February 2021, is a play on the Cuban communist revolution’s slogan “patria o muerte”—which means “homeland or death.” After Osorbo was detained that May, the song’s title became protesters’ cry in response to the dire situation in Cuba—its crumbling economy hit hard by COVID-19, a drop in tourism, global inflation and government mismanagement—but those calls for “life” in July 2021 were met by a violent crackdown and ongoing oppression.

“Maykel Castillo Pérez is unjustly imprisoned for exercising his right to free expression, for writing a song, for criticizing his country’s government. His case is emblematic of the situation faced by independent artists, writers, journalists and human rights defenders in Cuba,” Ma Thida, chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee, said in a statement Friday—using Osorbo’s real name.

Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken marked the two-year anniversary of the so-called 11J protests by calling for the “immediate release of unjustly detained political prisoners” like Osorbo.

“The world will not forget those who bravely made their voices heard in the face of extreme repression, including the more than 700 individuals who remain in Cuban jails, condemned to prison sentences ranging up to 25 years for exercising their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly,” he added in a statement.

 

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(BUCHAREST, Romania) — Two accusers of divisive social media personality Andrew Tate, who is charged with human trafficking and rape in Romania, have been the victims of “targeted” harassment designed to “scare them into silence,” their legal adviser in the United States told ABC News.

Tate, 36, and his brother Tristan, 35, were charged alongside two associates in Romania last month with rape, human trafficking and creating an organized crime group. Romanian prosecutors accuse the four of sexually exploiting seven women by coercing them to work for a webcam business at the Tates’ residence in Bucharest. One woman was allegedly raped at least twice, while another woman was allegedly subjected to physical violence to force her to keep performing, according to prosecutors.

The Tate brothers, who are dual U.K.-U.S. citizens, have vehemently denied the charges, claiming that they are the victims of a conspiracy to punish them for their polarizing views and accusing the women of lying.

Both brothers have millions of followers on social media with their controversial content garnering legions of dedicated fans. They promote an “alpha male” lifestyle and have gained widespread notoriety for their self-described misogynist views. Tate himself, who has been dubbed the “king of toxic masculinity,” remains banned from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube after an outcry from anti-hate speech campaign groups alleging his accounts encouraged violent misogyny.

Dani Pinter, senior legal counsel at the U.S.-based nonprofit National Center on Sexual Exploitation, is the attorney advising two women — one from Florida and the other Moldovan-British — whom Romanian prosecutors allege were lured to Romania and then sexually exploited. One of the women alleges she was raped.

Pinter told ABC News that since the Tate brothers were arrested in Romania last year, the two women have faced a deluge of harassment and have been targeted by a “troll army” launching online attacks and seeking to discredit the alleged victims. The lawyer accused Tate of inciting the attacks by his supporters with his social media posts, but said she did not have hard evidence he was directing them and Tate has denied doing so.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Pinter told ABC News during a recent interview.

Pinter alleged that Tate’s vast social media following has been turned against her clients, who are grappling with thousands of threats and relentless efforts to intimidate and undermine them. Supporters of the brothers have doxed private information of her clients and their relatives online, Pinter said, while at least two private investigators have also pursued her clients, digging into their past and showing up at their homes.

Both women remain anonymous for fears of their safety, but online trolls have been able to identify them and posted their details online, forcing the women to leave their respective homes and go into hiding, according to Pinter.

“It’s incredibly oppressive,” Pinter said. “Because they feel afraid for their safety and for their loved ones and for anyone they engage with, it’s incredibly isolating. It’s incredibly exhausting and frightening.”

On Tuesday, the Tate brothers filed a lawsuit in Florida’s Palm Beach County against both women as well as the Florida woman’s parents and another man, claiming the human trafficking and rape allegations were invented. The suit, seeking $5 million in damages, alleges that the five conspired to fabricate the accusations, leading to the Tates’ imprisonment and costing them millions in lost income.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s Law Center said it has “seen the news regarding the Tates’ lawsuit.”

“We are evaluating next steps as we wait for them to give formal notice, but we do not believe the lawsuit has any merit,” the center told ABC News in a statement on Friday.

The Tate brothers were arrested in Bucharest last December and subsequently held in jail for three months before being released and placed under house arrest in their home on the outskirts of the Romanian capital, where they have lived since 2017. The pair remain in custody under house arrest there.

They have since taken to Twitter to challenge the Romanian case, posting frequently on the social media platform after a 2017 ban on their accounts was lifted. Tate, a former professional kickboxer who appeared on the U.K. version of the television series “Big Brother” in 2016, has more than 7 million followers on Twitter. He and his brother also regularly post videos on the online video platform Rumble, which their supporters clip and share on other social media platforms.

Pinter said there was a spike in the online harassment of her clients every time news articles about the Romanian case or statements from the Tate brothers appeared online. She alleged the same methods that has allowed Tate to build his following through viral social media posts over the years is now being used to instigate mass online attacks against the two women.

“The same strategy that he used to indoctrinate thousands of young men created a readymade army of trolls,” Pinter told ABC News. “So he’s able to engage this mob to very quickly harass and target these women.”

“The swift, immediate, massive response to even the smallest bit of news seems completely consistent with how he always operated with getting his content out there,” she added. “It seems to me to be very clear that he’s just engaging that community intentionally.”

When asked for comment on Pinter’s allegations, a spokesperson for the Tate brothers told ABC News in a statement on Thursday: “Andrew and Tristan do not encourage any form of harassment against the alleged victims, or any other individual, as they have stated multiple times in the past via Twitter and other media. They are fully collaborating with the Romanian authorities and they are complying with the conditions of their house arrest. They remain committed to proving their innocence by using all of the legal means at their disposal.”

The spokesperson also pointed to recent Twitter posts from the Tate brothers, in which they told their followers, “Leave personal attacks and insults out of it,” and, “We win with love, not insults.”

Pinter alleged the harassment of her clients has also moved offline. At least two private investigators have knocked on their doors in the U.S., according to Pinter. She said a social media personality sympathetic to Tate had also gone to one of the women’s hometowns and questioned her former romantic partners. Both women have received rape and death threats online as well, according to Pinter.

She said the barrage of attacks is taking a heavy toll on her clients and has prevented them from coming forward publicly.

“They’re really in a tough position,” Pinter told ABC News. “They don’t feel like they can go home. They’re very isolated. One of the victims was telling me, you know, ‘I feel like I can’t get a traditional job because even if any of the co-workers Google my name, they could find out some of this.’ That’s very scary.”

The Tate brothers continue to be active on social media, but have denied directing their huge following to harass their critics and accusers. While making his initial court appearance as a defendant in the Romanian case in June, Tate thanked their supporters and said “we are not the first affluent and wealthy men who have been unfairly attacked.”

A trial date has yet to be set.

Pinter said there was little she could do to stop the online attacks, besides calling them out publicly and urging social media companies to take down the abusive content.

“These women astound me every day,” she added, “because despite being very distressed and experiencing severe mental anguish and being held back from living their lives to the fullest, they are very committed to not backing down.”

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