Comedian Russell Brand joked that US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins initiated a backstage hug while moderating a panel at Washington's Make America Healthy Again summit, drawing gasps just days before his UK rape trial is due to begin.
Brand appeared at the second annual summit in Washington DC, an event hosted by the nonprofit MAHA Center. He was introduced by Dr Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who told the audience that Brand had been backstage hugging the agriculture secretary, saying it took the movement to a whole new level. Brand responded that she had initiated the contact, making the point directly to the doctor. Oz laughed at the remark, while the audience offered a more muted response.
The timing of the joke has drawn sharp criticism. Brand's trial is set to begin at Southwark Crown Court in London on October 12, where he faces three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault involving six women, with the alleged offences dating from 1999 to 2009. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and the trial is expected to last around two months.
The case has been building for more than a year. Brand was first charged in April 2025 over alleged offences involving four women between 1999 and 2005, following an investigation that began after reporting by Channel 4's Dispatches and the Sunday Times in September 2023. Further charges were authorised in December 2025 involving two more women and alleged incidents in 2009, and the court agreed to hear all seven charges together rather than split them across two trials.
Brand has consistently denied wrongdoing, previously telling his followers in a video statement that he had never engaged in non-consensual activity and that he would have the opportunity to defend the charges in court. The court proceedings are expected to attract intense media attention, and commentators say the summit appearance, and the joke in particular, will only heighten scrutiny of the comedian as the trial approaches.
The BBC is preparing extensive coverage, reviving its Fame Under Fire podcast to report daily from Southwark Crown Court. For now, Brand remains on bail. The jury that sits on October 12 will be asked to decide on allegations spanning a decade, in what is shaping up to be one of the highest-profile criminal trials of the year, with the eyes of the media on both sides of the Atlantic fixed on the courtroom.