British comedian Russell Brand was found guilty of rape and sexual assault on Thursday.
After a four-week trial examining alleged offenses committed between 2004 and 2009, a jury found him guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, altogether involving four women.
Brand, the provocative and internationally recognized comic and former spouse of music star Katy Perry, has denied the allegations.
The conviction comes just weeks after the right-wing media darling moderated a panel discussion with top Donald Trump health official Mehmet Oz during a “Make America Healthy Again” summit. There, Brand and Oz joked together about Brand hugging another Trump official, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, with her consent. “She initiated that contact, I shall make clear, doctor,” Brand said.
On Thursday, the judge rejected Brand’s bail request due to the possibility that he might flee, noting that Brand faces a “significant” prison term. The prosecution argued Brand used his celebrity status to exploit vulnerable women, acting as a “sexual predator” who was driven by an “indiscriminate and voracious” appetite for sex.
The convictions relate to incidents at several different locations over the course five years – at a radio station, a bar, a set, and Brand’s home. The allegations first emerged in 2023, from bombshell reports by several British news outlets, which prompted police to open an investigation.
By that time, Brand was already going through a political transformation. Earlier in his career, Brand was a critic of capitalism, an advocate for economic redistribution and social change, a sort-of spiritual anti-establishment leftist in many respects.
During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brand transposed that anti-establishment stance rightward, questioning the vaccines and peddling various conspiracy theories, including one suggesting the pandemic was a deliberate project to establish authoritarian global rule with permanent restrictions on personal freedom. His transformation had him appearing frequently on more right-leaning media, including with the right-wing, pro-Israel commentator Ben Shapiro.
In early 2023, Brand posted a picture with Don Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was the president’s son’s fiancée at the time. (Guilfoyle went on to become Trump’s ambassador to Greece, before resigning in scandal.)
After the allegations against him emerged later that year, Brand’s public transformation accelerated. In 2024, Brand suddenly became religious and began openly discussing Christianity’s importance to him. In January, Brand posted a video explaining he wore a cross because “Christianity, and in particular, the figure of Christ are, it seems to me, inevitably becoming more important as I become more familiar with suffering, purpose, self, and not self.”
By April, he was baptized in the River Thames. Brand said the baptism was an “opportunity to die and be reborn in Christ’s name.”
And he cozied up to MAGA. That July, Brand went to the 2024 Republican National Convention, and hosted interviews with Trump’s son Eric and the now-disgraced Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Brand also appeared on the right-wing social media poster Benny Johnson’s show.
In early 2025, Brand was a special guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, for an event called “Celebrate American Exceptionalism.” Brand joined Trump, Ted Nugent, and Mike Tyson, among others.
It was a who’s who of alleged and convicted abusers. Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992. Nugent has faced allegations of sexual misconduct with underage girls and has made several profane comments against women. President Trump, himself, was found liable in a civil court for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.
In October 2025, Brand appeared at an event with the Trump-aligned advocacy group Turning Point USA.
The following month, Brand appeared at the first official “MAHA” summit, joining Oz, then-White House AI and crypto adviser David Sacks, UFC president Dana White, among others.
In December 2025, he spoke at AmericaFest, Turning Point USA’s annual conference, after the organization’s founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated. Brand spoke about Jesus, repentance, and his transformation to a Christian.
In April 2026, Piers Morgan asked Brand what Bible passages were relevant to him when he brought a copy into court. Brand spent around 100 seconds leafing through his Bible and was unsuccessful in finding the verse he claimed he had in mind.
In late September, Brand appeared alongside Oz at the September MAHA summit that featured several other Trump officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Weeks later, Brand was found guilty of rape.
Brand joins a long list of Trumpworld figures who have faced allegations of sex crimes.
Trump faces a litany of allegations of rape and sexual assault, in addition to the civil finding of sexual abuse, including a new allegation made public in late October, which accuses Trump of working in tandem with his former friend Jeffrey Epstein, the infamous financier, and raping a 24-year-old pageant contestant and financial services professional. Trump denies the allegations.
Former informal Trump adviser George Nader pled guilty to charges of child sex trafficking and possessing child pornography. Trump’s “secretary of war,” Pete Hegseth, has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman; while he denies the claims, he paid a $50,000 settlement to the complainant. Former congressman Matt Gaetz – who Trump nominated to be attorney general and possibly oversee management of the Epstein Files – is accused of sex trafficking and engaging in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl. (He denies the allegations.)
Top Trump donor and former head of the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” Elon Musk allegedly exposed himself to a SpaceX flight attendant and offered to buy her a horse in exchange for sexual favors; Musk also once asked Jeffrey Epstein to invite him to the “wildest party” on his island. Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has been accused of sexual harassment. Trump education secretary Linda McMahon is accused of knowing about and enabling alleged sexual abuse of teenage World Wrestling Entertainment staff, during her tenure as CEO of the wrestling organization.
For Brand’s part, following the trial, police in the UK have confirmed they are actively investigating two additional rape complaints against him.
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