After media personality Russell Brand, 51, was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison and convicted of rape in the U.K., right wing figures have publicly defended him. They include President Donald Trump’s son Donald Jr., right-wing pundit Megyn Kelly and entrepreneur Elon Musk, as well as leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
Around 20 years ago, Brand was already known in the U.K., where he had appeared on reality TV and briefly dated model Kate Moss, according to The Guardian. In the late 2000s and early 2010s he started getting international recognition with roles in films like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in 2008 and “Get Him to the Greek” in 2010. That year, he also married pop star Katy Perry.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the sexual offenses against four women that Brand was accused of occurred between 2004 and 2009, as his fame was starting to grow. He was found guilty following a four-week trial last week and sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison this Monday.
“Russell Brand was predatory and used his celebrity status to commit sexual crimes,” said David Roberts, Senior Crown Prosecutor in the London Rape and Serious Sexual Assault Unit. “He was a manipulator with an insatiable desire to get what he wanted regardless of whether consent was given or not.”
In recent years, Brand has become more engaged in U.S. politics. Leading up to the 2024 presidential election, he urged people to vote for then-candidate Trump on his podcast. He was also featured at the “Rescue the Republic” rally with Canadian psychologist and social media personality Jordan Peterson and RFK Jr., who also encouraged people to vote for Trump, as reported in The Atlantic
At that point, allegations against Brand had already been revealed in the media. One investigation called “Russell Brand: In Plain Sight” came from Britain’s Channel 4.
During Brand’s trial, Tony Lyons – the leader of Kennedy’s MAHA movement – went to London to attend the opening, according to POLITICO. It said that Lyons even had Brand on his weekly call with MAHA supporters, and said that Brand had been “falsely accused, he’s been vilified, persecuted, deplatformed, demonetized, censored, prosecuted,” when introducing him. Brand has also maintained his innocence.
Lyons did not respond to a request for comment following Brand’s conviction, POLITICIO said. However, STAT noted that MAHA Action Inc.’s newsletter published a 3,700-word defense of Brand.
Donald Trump Jr. also came to Brand’s defense in an episode of his Rumble show “Triggered” posted Monday. He claimed that Brand was convicted with “no forensic evidence, no DNA,” and no police report at the time. Trump Jr. also alleged that Brand’s conviction came because he is an outspoken conservative.
“No one seemed to think he was a rapist then,” Trump Jr. said, referring to the time when Brand was married to Katy Perry. Fox News has noted that Perry’s comments about Brand being controlling and that he should “be in jail” did resurface amid his trial.
Additionally, he compared Brand’s sentence to what he called “Muslim grooming gangs” in the U.K. That comparison was also made by conservative pundit Anne Coulter in an X post and Megyn Kelly on her show.
“He grabbed a boob, he kissed a lady, he, uh, sniffed a lady… and he had backdoor sex with a woman who licked his back door, before she was even introduced to him,” said Kelly. “He is going to prison for 10 and a half years for that. This is insane.”
She also called the trial a “a political witch hunt against Russell Brand.”
Musk, meanwhile, took to X (a platform he owns.) He said “unjust” on a post again comparing Brand’s sentence with another U.K. criminal, Sajid Mahmood Khan.
On Wednesday, Deadline reported that Netflix was already preparing for a documentary about Brand’s rape conviction. It is expected to be produced by 72 Films.
“Netflix has form when it comes to spotlighting high-profile British sex offenders in glossy documentaries produced by 72 Films,” said the outlet. “The streamer premiered Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story in 2022.”
