Linda So and Jason Szep

ATLANTA, Reuters -On the eve of the 2020 elections, a Chicago publicist went to Ruby Freeman’s home in suburban Atlanta. Ruby Freeman was a fearful Georgian election worker and had just received death threats from former President Donald Trump. A publicist came knocking on Ruby Freeman’s door, offering to assist.

The visitor, Trevian Kutti, gave her name but didn’t say she worked for West, a longtime billionaire friend of Trump. She said she was sent by a “high-profile individual,” whom she didn’t identify, to give 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.

Freeman said no. This story of how an associate of a music mogul pressured a 62-year-old temporary election worker at the center of a Trump conspiracy theory is based on previously unreported police recordings and reports, legal filings, and Freeman’s first media interview since she was dragged into Trump’s attempt to reverse his election loss.

Kutti declined to comment on requests. 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.”

After this story was published, a representative for West said Kutti https://www.reuters.com/world/us/publicist-was-not-associated-with-kanye-west-when-she-pressured-election-worker-2021-12-13 was not associated with the music star when she met Freeman. Pierre Rougier, a spokesperson for the rapper, said on Sunday: “Trevian Kutti was not associated with Kanye West or any of his enterprises at the times of the facts that are reported in these articles or since these facts occurred.”

Rougier didn’t answer any additional questions regarding whether Kutti was employed by West at different times or if West and Kutti were friends. Reuters attempted to contact a different West representative before publishing this article. However, Reuters did not receive a reply.

Kutti knocked Freeman’s doors on January 4, Freeman dialed 911. Freeman claimed that Kutti was now wary about strangers.

Starting on Dec. 3, Trump and his campaign repeatedly accused Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, of illegally counting phony 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.

Trump and his aides continued to make accusations of Freeman, Moss and other election-riggers. These allegations sparked hundreds of harassment and threats against Freeman and Moss and their families.

By the time Kutti arrived, Freeman needed help but was cautious and wouldn’t open the door because of the threats, according to Freeman and a police report.

Freeman asked for a neighbor’s help to talk to Kutti. Kutti was accompanied by an unidentified male. Kutti, like Freeman were both Black. Kutti told the neighbor that Freeman was in danger and that she’d been sent to provide assistance. Freeman indicated that she is open to having them meet. She called Cobb County Police and asked for an officer who would keep her safe so that she could go outside.

“They’re saying that I need help,” 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 Kutti, who described herself as a “crisis manager,” according to the police incident report.

Kutti repeated that 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 Kutti.

‘YOU’RE A LOOSE END’

Kutti and Freeman were seen meeting in the corner of the station according to footage taken from the body camera carried by an officer at the meeting. Reuters received the video via a public-records inquiry.

“I cannot say what specifically will take place,” Kutti is heard telling 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,” Kutti continued. She added that “federal people” were involved, without offering specifics.

According to Freeman, Kutti told her that she was going to put a man named “Harrison Ford” on speakerphone. (Freeman said the man on the phone wasn’t the actor by the same name.) Kutti said the man had “authoritative powers to get you protection,” the bodycam footage shows.

Kutti is heard asking the officer for privacy. Although the camera captured the entire conversation, it did not record any of what happened after the officer left the women.

Kutti tried, along with the man on the phone, to persuade Freeman to confess to voter fraud. Freeman stated that Kutti had offered legal help in return.

“If you don’t tell everything,” Freeman recalled Kutti saying, “you’re going to jail.” 

Growing suspicious, Freeman said she jumped up from her chair and told Kutti: “The devil is a liar,” before calling for an officer.

Later at home, Freeman said, she Googled Kutti’s name and discovered she was a Trump supporter.

The police claim that they didn’t investigate further the incident.

West, who changed his name in October to “Ye,” did not respond to requests for comment sent through another publicist who represents him.

Media reports have cited Kutti’s 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. Kutti is listed as the founder and CEO of Trevian Worldwide Media and Entertainment Consulting with four offices. Kutti says she has served as a consultant to Queen Rania al Abdullah and boxer Terence Crawford.

The meeting took place two months after West ended a failed bid for the White House that drew media attention when several publications revealed that allies and supporters of Trump were working on the ground to advance West’s campaign. Some Democrats said they regarded 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 Jan. 5, the day after Freeman’s meeting with Kutti, an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation called Freeman and urged her to leave her home of 20 years because it wasn’t safe, Freeman said.

The following day, Jan. 6, Kutti’s prediction that people would descend on Freeman’s home in 48 hours proved correct, according to a defamation lawsuit Freeman and Moss filed last week against a far-right news site. The lawsuit claimed that Freeman fled hours earlier than a crowd of Trump supporters stormed her home shouting through bullhorns.