Trump Jr. defends pal Russell Brand, says rape conviction was politically motivated

In the years leading up to his conviction and sentencing in a London Court on rape and sexual assault charges, comedian-turned-YouTube conspiracy monger Russell Brand enjoyed being welcomed into the elite inner circle of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

That included becoming friends with Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who is now showing his loyalty to Brand Tuesday by recording a video in which he denounced the comedian’s conviction last week, The Independent and the Daily Mail reported. The cryptocurrency entrepreneur and MAGA firebrand also claimed that Brand, 51, was sentenced Monday to more than a decade in prison because of his conversion to Christianity and his embrace of conservative politics.

“He finds God, I guess, changes his ways, sees some aspects of conservative life, and talks about them, and now he’s going to spend 10 and a half years in prison for rape when no one had a problem with it in the prior 27 years,” Trump Jr. said in the video posted on his popular Rumble show, The Independent reported.

Trump Jr.’s video came with a headline declaring “Britain’s Two-Tier Justice Exposed,” the Daily Mail reported. He also claimed that the evidence used to convict Brand was not legitimate.

“He was convicted, by the way, with no forensic evidence, no DNA, no police report at the time, now decades old, to allegations dating back to 1999,” Trump Jr. said.

“So when he was married to Katy Perry, he was one of the most famous actors in the world, no one seemed to have a problem, no one seemed to think he was a rapist then,” Trump Jr. said referring to Brand’s marriage to the pop superstar from 2010 to 2012.

In Trump Jr.’s attempt to build a defense of Brand, he cited a case from 1999, but the Daily Mail pointed out that Brand was not convicted of this particular offense. The case involved an alleged rape in a Bournemouth hotel room during a Labour Party conference, and the jury acquitted him of this count.

Brand’s rape conviction concerns a 21-year-old fan he met backstage at a West London comedy show in 2009 and anally raped at his home, roughly a year before he married Perry, NPR reported. The jury also found Brand guilty of grabbing and groping three other women — at a bar, a radio station and a TV studio — between 2004 and 2009. Three counts against Brand were dismissed.

Trump Jr. also criticized the length of the punishment, suggesting that it was harsh in comparison to how British courts have handled other crimes.

“This raises what I think are some pretty obvious questions about why his sentence was more severe than, I don’t know, sentences handed to Muslim grooming gangs across the U.K.,” Trump Jr. said.

Before Judge Joel Bennathan handed down Brand’s sentence Monday, he said the comedian had shown a “casual and arrogant disregard” for women and had become a sexual predator as his fame grew, the Daily Mail reported.

The judge also said that Brand’s testimony, denying he ever touched a woman sexually without consent, was one of a series of lies, the Daily Mail added.

At Brand’s sentencing, four of the women who brought cases against him gave victim impact statements, three of which were read to the court by prosecutors, NPR reported. In her statement read to the court, the woman who was raped by Brand said, “It’s something I carry with me every day and it often feels never-ending.”

“I doubt my ability to make good decisions and no longer trust my instinct in the way I did,” her statement said, adding that because of Brand’s fame she didn’t think she’d be believed if she reported him.

A second woman, who spoke in person from behind a curtain in the courtroom, said it made her “physically sick” to see Brand in the news, enjoying his rise to fame after he sexually assaulted her in a bar in 2004.

Brand first became famous in the U.K. through through stand-up comedy and TV, fashioning himself into one of Britain’s most provocative celebrities, according to the Daily Beast. He then enjoyed Hollywood stardom with prominent roles in movies like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in 2008 and “Get Him to the Greek” in 2010.

But according to the Daily Beast and the New York Times Magazine, Brand underwent a dramatic political transformation after allegations of serious sexual misconduct first emerged against him in a bombshell 2023 joint investigation by Channel 4, The Sunday Times and The Times of London. In the investigation, four women accused of Brand of sexual assault between 2006 and 2013, according to the New York Times magazine. “The accounts were specific, revolting and, in some cases, bolstered by medical records and other contemporaneous evidence,” the publication said.

But with Brand’s political transformation, he became a darling of the American far-right, as the Daily Beast also said.

Trump Jr. first offered Brand public support in 2023, then as now expressing his belief he was the victim of an agenda-led effort to falsely brand him a sexual predator, the New York Times magazine said. The president’s son posted a meme showing his father, who has been accused by more than two dozen women of rape, sexual assault or other misconduct, along with misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate, who is awaiting trial on rape and human-trafficking charges in Romania. Trump Jr.’s meme also included Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who also was accused of rape. He captioned the meme: “One day they’ll be coming for you. I don’t believe in this much coincidence and neither should you.”

Trump Jr. also got together with Brand at his Florida home, where they recorded an episode of “Russell Brand Live.” In that recording, Trump Jr. defended the Jan. 6 protesters and dismissed allegations that he and his family were corrupt.

Elon Musk also has backed the once-up-and-coming Hollywood comedy star, writing on X in 2023, “I support Russell Brand. That man is not evil.” Brand moreover went on to develop close ties with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., establishing himself as a figurehead of the Make America Healthy Again movement, the Daily Beast added.

Like Trump Jr., Musk also stepped up this week to reiterate his support for Brand. Replying to another user’s post on X, deriding Brand’s conviction for offenses more than a decade old, the tech mogul called it an example of “a crazy legal standard.” Meanwhile, conservative pundit Megyn Kelly joined Trump Jr. in claiming that Brand’s conviction was politically motivated, the New York Times reported.

“I don’t believe the charges,” Kelly said, while speaking to her 4.1 million subscribers on her YouTube channel. “And, I don’t have to believe them just because the jury came through with the opposite conclusion. I feel indignant that this obvious conservative stalwart has been targeted.”

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