Braden Eric Peters, the 20-year-old right-wing livestreamer known online as Clavicular, has been charged in Massachusetts with rape, drugging a person for sexual intercourse and procuring alcohol for a person under 21. The complaint concerns an alleged encounter on 23 May 2025 with a 17-year-old girl at his family's house in Chatham, on Cape Cod. Peters was 19 at the time.
Judge Marion Broidrick of Orleans District Court found probable cause on 4 September, and the complaint issued on 8 September under docket number 2626CR000731, court records show. A statement of facts was filed with the complaint and is not open on the public docket. The court issued a summons to appear rather than an arrest warrant, and Peters has not been taken into custody.
Will Sommer of The Bulwark first reported the charges on 21 September. The Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office, which prosecutes cases in the Orleans court, has not made a public statement on the case.
Massachusetts charges rape under chapter 265, section 22(b) of its general laws, which covers intercourse compelled "by force and against his will" or by threat of bodily injury and carries up to 20 years in state prison. Drugging a person "with intent to stupefy or overpower" them for intercourse, under chapter 272, section 3, carries a sentence of life or any term of not less than 10 years. The alcohol count, under chapter 138, section 34A, is a misdemeanour.
Neither felony appears on the list of offences a district court may try under chapter 218, section 26 of the general laws. A trial on the rape and drugging counts would require an indictment by a grand jury and a transfer to Barnstable Superior Court.
What the complaint alleges
The girl reported the encounter to Chatham police, according to the police report. She told police Peters was livestreaming on Twitch that night and that he knew her age but told her to say on stream she was 18.
Peters's response
A spokesperson for Peters said the charges were "bogus" and that they "stem from a civil suit he has refused to settle after the accuser later added allegations of sexual abuse." Mitchell Jackson, who represents Peters, said: "She files a lawsuit and doesn't include sexual assault as a count. Then she amends it and adds it a couple of months later."
A representative for Peters said on 21 September: "Clavicular has not been physically served. As usual, the Bulwark is exaggerating the status of a case to boost traffic." The docket number, judge and dates in The Bulwark's report match the court record.
Peters wrote on X: "Trying to get my attention in anyway possible, a lawsuit? Seriously… really petty of you." He posted screenshots of messages and a handwritten letter that he said came from the complainant. In a second post he wrote: "Happens to all successful young men, people try to come for your money. Greed is evil." In a video posted after the charges he said: "theres better ways to make money then suing someone".
Peters has not entered a plea. The counts are allegations a court has yet to test.
The civil suit
The complainant, now 18, filed a civil suit against Peters in Miami-Dade County in April. The suit did not at first include a count of sexual assault, which was added in an amendment, and Peters has moved to dismiss it.
A suit filed against Peters in Miami-Dade on 29 April by a teenage influencer lists counts of battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud and unauthorised use of name and likeness, and seeks more than 50,000 dollars. It alleges he supplied alcohol to a minor, gave injections without a medical licence and ran a campaign against her sponsorships.
Steve Kramer, a lawyer for Peters in the Miami-Dade case, said then: "These are allegations only and remain unproven. Mr. Peters denies the claims and disputes the characterization of events. He will respond through the appropriate legal channels and intends to vigorously defend himself."
A year of arrests and bans
Peters livestreamed from a Tesla Cybertruck in Miami-Dade County on 24 December 2025, and the video appeared to show the truck running over a man who had climbed on its bonnet. Asked on stream whether the man was dead, Peters said: "Hopefully." He later posted an AI-generated image mocking the incident with the caption "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes", and said the man had stalked him for weeks and thrown red liquid at him. Kick banned his channel the next day. No charges have been reported.
Police in Scottsdale, Arizona arrested Peters at a bar on 7 February on suspicion of possessing Adderall and the steroid Anavar without a prescription and carrying a fake identity card. Officers said he had asked other patrons for Adderall while streaming. Prosecutors declined to charge him on 11 February, citing a low likelihood of conviction. Peters wrote at the time that the arrest was "straight up political persecution".
Florida authorities arrested him in late March on battery and conspiracy to commit battery over a fight at a rented house in Kissimmee involving his girlfriend and another woman. Kick banned his channel a second time shortly after that arrest without giving a reason.
Peters overdosed during a livestream in Miami on 14 April and was taken to hospital. He had taken a mix of Adderall, dextromethorphan, pregabalin, ketamine and 1,4-butanediol, and said afterwards: "All of the substances are just a cope trying to feel neurotypical while being in public."
A Miami-Dade judge sentenced him on 15 May to six months of probation and 20 hours of community service after he pleaded no contest to unlawfully discharging a firearm, for shooting a dead alligator from an airboat on stream.
YouTube terminated his original channel in November 2025 for directing viewers to sites selling regulated goods, and removed his replacement accounts in April for ban evasion. Peters had roughly 384,000 followers on Kick and 1.1 million on TikTok before the charges.
Kick paid some users to clip and repost his streams, and Peters was earning more than 100,000 dollars a month from Kick in February. He sold a looksmaxxing course by monthly subscription and one-to-one strategy calls at 5,000 dollars for 45 minutes. He told The New York Times he had taken testosterone since the age of 14.
Women, looks and race in his own words
Peters said of the actor Sydney Sweeney on Michael Knowles's Daily Wire show in December 2025: "I would say she's pretty malformed. Her upper maxilla is extremely recessed. She's really not that much of a looker in her face." The interview passed 1.9 million views on YouTube within three days.
Peters streamed from Paris on Kick on 22 June after a string of unsuccessful approaches to women. "Every time I walk past a girl and there's no sign of interest, I think, what is this, am I being trolled," he said. "They must be lesbians. It's the only logical explanation."
Peters wrote on X the same day: "I thought I did something wrong to upset people in France, but it turns out the French are impolite shitbags. No AC, terrible economy, horrible quality of living." He also posted: "I will have done more for women at the end of my career then the entire feminist movement combined."
Peters wrote on X on 22 June: "Girls from the US are a lot more attractive than EU simply because the gene pool was devastated during WW2. All the good genes died in war, while the physically unfit stayed back and reproduced."
Peters has worn a hat bearing a racial slur and used the slur repeatedly on stream, The New York Times and the Arizona Republic reported. He has played audio of the slur in TikTok videos that implied Black people were less attractive.
Adam Hegarty of 60 Minutes Australia asked Peters on 13 April why he spent time with Andrew Tate, citing the rape and trafficking allegations against Tate. Peters said: "I guess you watched the Piers interview. Too bad I didn't have time to look into, you know, anything about you potentially, who your wife cheated with." He then walked out.
Peters's streams frame women as status-seekers and present patriarchal hierarchy as a social good, The Intercept reported on 5 May. Clips of his streams helped carry incel slang into wider use, including "foid", a slur for women.
Fuentes, the Tates and the Miami circuit
Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist streamer, hosted Peters for an hours-long video in which Peters said he had modelled his social media strategy on Fuentes and spoke of "saving European culture" through steroids and looksmaxxing. Peters told the Forward he took up looksmaxxing after a high-school interest in politics, reasoning that good looks would help him win political influence. The Forward listed Peters among right-wing extremists to watch in 2026.
Fuentes said on his stream on 16 January: "My problem with Trump isn't that he's Hitler, my problem with Trump is that he is not Hitler."
Fuentes, Andrew and Tristan Tate, the streamer Sneako, the podcaster Myron Gaines, the entrepreneur Justin Waller and Peters were filmed the next night, 17 January, at Vendome, a Miami Beach nightclub, singing along to Ye's "Heil Hitler", which includes an excerpt of a Hitler speech. The group arrived together in a limousine, and some were filmed making Nazi salutes in clips that circulated online, including footage Sneako uploaded. Peters is first on the left in a screenshot of the group arriving. He later defended the singing as funny.
Joseph McBride, the Tates' lawyer, said the brothers had not sung along. "Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate did neither," McBride said. "If the club is looking for someone to blame, it should start by looking in the mirror."
Vendome said on 18 January that the video showed "content and imagery that are deeply offensive and unacceptable", and on 19 January said it had fired three employees and banned those involved. Steven Meiner, the mayor of Miami Beach, said: "I'm disgusted about it. There's no place for that in Miami Beach. We're a welcoming and diverse city."
The Anti-Defamation League wrote on X: "Why would a nightclub play a song that glorifies Hitler and was banned by multiple streaming platforms?" The Nexus Project, an antisemitism watchdog, said in a statement: "That the men who took part in this Hitler praising seem to have the sympathies and ear of the President of the United States should be doubly cause for concern."
Vendome operates at 743 Washington Avenue in South Beach. Rockwell, a nightclub co-owned by Chris Paciello, ran at the same address from November 2015 to February 2021. Paciello pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering charge in 2000, served six years of a 10-year sentence and cooperated with prosecutors in cases against members of the Bonanno crime family that reached its boss, Joseph Massino. Vendome's website does not name its operators, and no public report links them to Paciello or to any criminal record.
David Grutman, who owns several Miami Beach venues, said the group would not be welcome at his clubs. Grutman later met Peters with David Einhorn, owner of Papi Steak, and said: "You don't end hate by avoiding it. You talk through it." Peters used a racial slur on stream hours after the meeting. He was later refused entry to Bacara, a Miami Beach club he had helped promote and in which he said he had invested 400,000 dollars.
Mitchell Jackson, the publicist speaking for Peters on the rape charges, also represents the right-wing commentator Candace Owens. Peters has streamed from the downtown Miami studio of Fresh and Fit, the podcast Gaines cohosts, and with Jake Paul, the rapper 6ix9ine and the former basketball players LiAngelo and Lonzo Ball in Miami. Nate Kest, his manager, registered several Florida companies with Peters.
A Republican candidate
James Fishback, an investment fund founder who ran in the Republican primary for Florida governor on 18 August, wrote on X on 25 December 2025 that Peters "did nothing wrong" after the Cybertruck video. Fishback interviewed Peters in January.
Fishback personally called Trump in August 2025 to pitch himself as the president's "bulldog" on the Federal Reserve Board and asked Alex Bruesewitz, a Trump campaign adviser, to invest 25,000 dollars in his fund. He then ran against Byron Donalds, Trump's endorsed candidate, calling him "DEI Donalds".
The Republican Party of Florida disinvited Fishback from a party event in June, citing his history of "racist and anti-semitic attacks". Fishback told a counter-rally in Fort Lauderdale on 28 June: "I will burn down the Republican establishment as it stands." Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins sued him, alleging he did not meet the state's seven-year residency requirement for governor.
Tech podcasts and the fashion trade
Peters appeared on stage at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on 15 September, six days before the charges were reported, and rated the face of cohost Chamath Palihapitiya. Peters told Palihapitiya: "Obviously, in your position, you've sort of beaten that disparity," then said he was uncomfortable and left the stage. Jason Calacanis, another cohost, called the appearance "performance art at an extremely elite level". Peters posted four days later that he had "mogged them by a few millimeters of facial harmony".
David Sacks, a third All-In cohost, stood down as the Trump administration's AI and crypto adviser in March after 130 days of service and became co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Peters also appeared in the past year on Howie Mandel's podcast, a Barstool Sports show, Red Scare and, on 17 February, The Adam Friedland Show.
Elena Velez put Peters on the runway at New York Fashion Week on 17 February, 10 days after the Scottsdale arrest, in a show launching Remilia Atelier, her collaboration with the online art collective Remilia Corporation. Velez's earlier shows had gathered right-wing personalities and fashion journalists in the same room.
Merriam-Webster added looksmaxxing to its online dictionary this month among about 1,400 new entries.
Press seats for creators
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt opened White House briefing-room seats to podcasters, influencers and content creators on 29 January 2025. More than 7,400 applications arrived within 24 hours.
Trump and Vance toured podcasts and streams aimed at young men through the 2024 campaign. Trump livestreamed with Adin Ross in August 2024, and Ross gave him a Cybertruck and a Rolex on stream.
Ross phoned Peters on stream after the Cybertruck video in December 2025 and told him to keep streaming. Peters planned a boxing debut on Ross's show in January.
Accused men in office
The Supreme Court refused on 17 August to reopen the E. Jean Carroll verdict against Trump, ending his appeals in that case. A jury found him liable in 2023 for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her, and awarded her 5 million dollars.
Trump asked the Supreme Court on 28 July to throw out a separate 83.3 million dollar defamation judgment in Carroll's favour, and the Justice Department backed his petition. The court has not ruled on it.
Pete Hegseth paid 50,000 dollars to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, his lawyer said in January 2025. Hegseth denied the allegation and no charges were brought. The Senate confirmed him as defence secretary on 24 January 2025 by 51 votes to 50, with Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.
From the streams to Trump's circle
Trump dined with Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022, when Fuentes came as a guest of Ye. Paolo Zampolli, Trump's special envoy for global partnerships, hosted Andrew and Tristan Tate at a gathering at Dupont Circle on 15 July attended by about 150 guests, including officials from the Justice, State and Treasury departments. Representative Wesley Hunt met the brothers in his office the day before.
Romania lifted travel restrictions on the brothers in February 2025 and they flew to Florida. Representative Jamie Raskin wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on 3 April 2025 that US officials had pressed their Romanian counterparts to lift the restrictions and that Special Envoy Richard Grenell had raised the case at the Munich Security Conference, citing news reports, and asked the department to name every official involved.
US Marshals arrested the brothers in Miami on 18 July on a British extradition request. The British request carries 38 charges, including rape, trafficking, child rape media and material prosecuted as extreme pornography, and brings the total against the brothers with their Romanian indictments to 59. The British charges cover seven complainants and alleged conduct from July 2010 to August 2017. Both deny every charge and are contesting extradition, and their lawyer said the arrests were a political hit.
Felix Sater, who worked with Trump on the Trump SoHo tower in Manhattan as a managing director of Bayrock Group, Trump's development partner, pleaded guilty in 1998 to one count of racketeering in a 40 million dollar stock fraud involving members of the Genovese and Bonanno crime families. Sater cooperated with federal investigators after his plea. In 2010 he carried Trump Organization business cards naming him "Senior Advisor to Donald Trump". Trump said in a 2013 deposition: "If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn't know what he looked like."
Research on teenage feeds
Researchers led by Kaitlyn Regehr at UCL, with the University of Kent and the Association of School and College Leaders, set up TikTok accounts standing in for vulnerable teenage boys, each built around an interest such as masculinity, loneliness or self-improvement, and tracked seven days of recommendations. Misogynistic videos rose from 13 per cent of recommended content to 56 per cent by day five, a fourfold increase, according to the study published on 5 February 2024.
Regehr's team interviewed young people and school leaders, and wrote that misogynistic tropes had moved off screens and into schools. Regehr said: "Harmful views and tropes are now becoming normalised among young people." The report called for social media companies to be held accountable for algorithmic harm and for peer mentoring led by boys.
A 2026 review led by Jason Nagata of the University of California, San Francisco, published in the American Journal of Public Health, named looksmaxxing among the risky practices boys take from online masculinity content.
Arraignment
Peters is summoned to Orleans District Court at 8.30am on 14 October, when the three counts will be read to him and a plea entered. A conviction on the rape count carries registration with the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board, and the drugging count carries a minimum of 10 years in state prison.
