Rfk Jr. And His Allies Are Standing By Russell Brand As The Comedian’s Rape Trial Begins

Actor Russell Brand appeared at a Make America Healthy Again Summit in Washington two weeks ago, standing onstage with Mehmet Oz and snapping a photo with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

This week he's on trial in London on charges that he raped or sexually assaulted six women. Tony Lyons, the head of the MAHA PAC, was in the courthouse supporting him.

Brand was charged more than a year ago, based on allegations from four women, but MAHA groups and the movement’s founder, Kennedy, have stood by him. Brand spoke on Lyons’ regular conference call for movement activists on Wednesday, the third day of his trial.

“He's been falsely accused, he's been vilified, persecuted, deplatformed, demonetized, censored, prosecuted,” Lyons said in introducing Brand.

Brand has denied the charges, three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault, saying any sex he had was consensual.

Brand’s attorney did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. Neither did Lyons or spokespersons for Oz, Kennedy and President Donald Trump.

Brand said on Lyons’ call that he believes in truth, justice and redemption “as a follower of Christ.”

He’s a longtime MAHA supporter because, like many others in the movement, he rejected mandatory Covid-19 vaccination and lockdowns during the pandemic. Like Kennedy, Brand often rallies against the pharmaceutical industry, which he’s accused of prioritizing profits over people’s health, and against bureaucrats he thinks aren’t protecting the public. He often praises Kennedy’s effort to remove artificial dyes and other chemicals from food.

At the MAHA Summit, he interviewed Oz, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Oz aide Dan Brillman, about the high cost of American health care amid high rates of obesity and chronic disease.

Oz introduced Brand by telling the audience he’d seen Brand backstage hugging Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Brand responded: “She initiated that contact, I should make clear, doctor.” Oz laughed.

At the end of the panel, Brand, Brillman and Oz took a picture with Kennedy.

The comedian was a star of several comedy hits including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Bedtime Stories and has voiced the role of the mad scientist Dr. Nefario in the animated Despicable Me films.

He now hosts a ‘Stay Free’ podcast on livestreaming platform Rumble.

British prosecutors in April 2025 charged Brand for allegedly raping a woman in 1999; sexually assaulting another in 2001; raping and sexually assaulting a third woman in 2004 and sexually assaulting a fourth woman between 2004 and 2005.

Prosecutors in December announced two more charges of rape and sexual assault involving two additional women, with the offenses alleged to have happened in 2009.

The women’s identities have not been disclosed, as victims of sexual offenses are entitled to lifelong anonymity in the media or any other publication under U.K. law.

Some of the women said they didn’t come forward about the alleged offenses sooner because they thought they would be blamed for what happened, a prosecutor said Wednesday, according to a New York Times report from the court.

In a video he posted to the social media platform X addressing the initial charges last year, Brand said that while he was “a drug addict, sex addict, and an imbecile” in his youth, he was never a rapist. “I've never engaged in non-consensual activity, I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes,” he added.

Brand also suggested he was being maliciously prosecuted. “We're very fortunate, I suppose, that this is happening at a time where we know that the law has become a kind of weapon to be used against people, institutions, and sometimes entire nations that will not accept and tolerate levels of corruption that are unprecedented,” he said in the video.

His trial is expected to last six weeks, Reuters reported.

Brand endorsed Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 2024, just weeks before the now-health secretary dropped out and threw his support behind Trump. A few days after being sworn in, Kennedy posted to X a picture of himself with Brand and a shirtless Oz, while the health secretary was holding a lizard.

At the MAHA Summit on Sept. 29, Brand praised Oz for connecting him to a surgeon who performed heart surgery on Brand’s son when the boy was 12 weeks old. Brand has said that his son was born with DiGeorge syndrome, a genetic condition that can result in heart issues, and Tetralogy of Fallot, a rare, life-threatening congenital heart defect.

“You are a doctor, and you are a healer, and you are a beautiful man,” Brand told Oz before turning to Kennedy, whom he praised for being devoted to what he does.

During his MAHA Action call Wednesday, Lyons advertised Brand’s book, How to Become a Christian in 7 Days, which Lyons’ company, Skyhorse Publishing, released this year. In the book, “Brand describes his apostasy from ‘demonic Hollywood’ and radical conversion to Christianity against a backdrop of his son’s heart surgery and truly jaw-dropping spiritual warfare,” Skyhorse says in its promotional materials. Lyons claimed the British are censoring the book, along with U.S. booksellers, and told people on the call to buy it.