Weeks after the 2020 election, a Chicago publicist for hip-hop artist Kanye West travelled to the suburban home of Ruby Freeman, a frightened Georgia election worker who was facing death threats after being falsely accused by former US president Donald Trump of manipulating votes.
The publicist knocked on the door and offered to help. The visitor, Trevian Kutti, gave her name but didn’t say she worked for Mr West, a longtime billionaire friend of Mr Trump. She said she was sent by a “high-profile individual,” whom she didn’t identify, to give Ms Freeman an urgent message: confess to Trump’s voter-fraud allegations, or people would come to her home in 48 hours, and she’d go to jail.
Ms Freeman refused. This story of how an associate of a music mogul pressured a 62-year-old temporary election worker at the centre of a Trump conspiracy theory is based on previously unreported police recordings and reports, legal filings, and Ms Freeman’s first media interview since she was dragged into Mr Trump’s attempt to reverse his election loss.
Ms Kutti did not respond to requests for comment. Her biography for her work at the Women’s Global Initiative, a business networking group, identifies her as a member of “the Young Black Leadership Council under President Donald Trump.” It notes that in September 2018, she “was secured as publicist to Kanye West” and “now serves as West’s Director of Operations".
When Ms Kutti knocked on Ms Freeman's door on January 4th, Ms Freeman called 911. By then, Ms Freeman said, she was wary of strangers.
Starting on December 3rd, Mr Trump and his campaign repeatedly accused Ms Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, of illegally counting phoney mail-in ballots after pulling them from mysterious suitcases while working on Election Day at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. In fact, the “suitcases” were standard ballot containers, and the votes were properly counted, county and state officials quickly confirmed, refuting the fraud claims.
But Mr Trump and his allies continued to accuse Ms Freeman and Ms Moss of election-rigging. The allegations inspired hundreds of threats and harassing messages against them and their family members.
By the time Ms Kutti arrived, Ms Freeman needed help but was cautious and wouldn’t open the door because of the threats, according to Ms Freeman and a police report.
So Ms Freeman asked a neighbour to come over and talk with Ms Kutti, who was with an unidentified male. Like Ms Freeman, Ms Kutti and the other visitor were Black. Ms Kutti told the neighbour that Ms Freeman was in danger and that she’d been sent to provide assistance. Ms Freeman said she was open to meeting them. She asked Cobb County Police to send an officer to keep watch, so she could step outside, according to a recording of her 911 call.
“They’re saying that I need help,” Ms Freeman told the dispatcher, referring to the people at her door, “that it’s just a matter of time that they are going to come out for me and my family".
An officer arrived and spoke with Ms Kutti, who described herself as a “crisis manager,” according to the police incident report.
Ms Kutti repeated that Ms Freeman “was in danger” and had “48 hours” before “unknown subjects” turned up at her home, the report said. At the officer’s suggestion, the women agreed to meet at a police station. The officer’s report did not identify the man accompanying Ms Kutti.
'You're a loose end'
Inside the station, Ms Kutti and Ms Freeman met in a corner, according to footage from a body camera worn by an officer present at the meeting. Reuters obtained the video through a public-records request.
“I cannot say what specifically will take place,” Ms Kutti is heard telling Ms Freeman in the recording. “I just know that it will disrupt your freedom," she said, "and the freedom of one or more of your family members".
“You are a loose end for a party that needs to tidy up,” Ms Kutti continued. She added that “federal people” were involved, without offering specifics.
Ms Kutti told Ms Freeman that she was going to put a man Ms Kutti identified as “Harrison Ford” on speakerphone. (Ms Freeman said the man on the phone wasn’t the actor by the same name.) Ms Kutti said the man had “authoritative powers to get you protection,” she said.
At that point, Ms Kutti can be heard asking the officer to give them privacy. The body camera did not capture a clear recording of the conversation that followed after the officer moved away from the two women.
Ms Kutti and the man on the speakerphone, over the next hour, tried to get Ms Freeman to implicate herself in committing voter fraud on Election Day. Ms Kutti offered legal assistance in exchange, Ms Freeman said.
“If you don't tell everything,” Ms Freeman recalled Ms Kutti saying, “you're going to jail.”
Growing suspicious, Ms Freeman said she jumped up from her chair and told Ms Kutti: “The devil is a liar,” before calling for an officer.
Later at home, Ms Freeman said, she Googled Ms Kutti’s name and discovered she was a Trump supporter.
Police say they did not investigate the incident further.
Mr West, who changed his name in October to “Ye,” did not respond to requests for comment sent through another publicist who represents him.
Reuters could not independently confirm whether Ms Kutti still works for Mr West, or in what capacity.
Media reports have cited her association with the rapper since 2018, when she ceased working with R. Kelly, an R&B singer who was convicted in September of racketeering and sex-trafficking charges. Ms Kutti's biography says she is the founder of Trevian Worldwide, a media and entertainment advisory firm with offices in four cities. Among her clients, she says, are boxer Terence Crawford and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan.
West White House bid
The meeting took place two months after Mr West ended a failed bid for the White House that drew media attention when several publications revealed that allies and supporters of Mr Trump were working on the ground to advance West’s campaign. Some Democrats said they regarded Mr West’s presidential bid as a ruse to siphon off Black votes from Democrat Joe Biden. Groups assisting the rapper’s campaign denied that charge.
On January 5th, the day after Ms Freeman's meeting with Ms Kutti, an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation called Ms Freeman and urged her to leave her home of 20 years because it wasn’t safe, Ms Freeman said.
The following day, January 6th, Ms Kutti’s prediction that people would descend on Ms Freeman’s home in 48 hours proved correct, according to a defamation lawsuit Ms Freeman and Ms Moss filed last week against a far-right news site. Ms Freeman, the lawsuit said, left hours before a mob of angry Trump supporters surrounded her home, shouting through bullhorns.
